
ON THE BORDER WITH 

ANDREW JACKSON 


■ the buckskin books 

■ r By JOHN T. MCINTYRE 



Copyright N° 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




V 








































































































“so THE INDIANS ARE STILL GATHERING ?” 



ON THE BORDERS 

WITH 


ANDREW JACKSON 


By 

JOHN TvilcINTYRE 


Illustrations by 

F. A. Anderson 



THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELHIA 
1915 


COPYRIGHT 

1915 by 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
C OMP AN Y 



the Border with Andrew Jackson 


“ SEP 221915 
$o.ys- 

©CI.A410590 


Contents 


I. 

In the Creek Country . 

7 

II. 

The Coming of Tecumseh 

. 21 

III. 

The Wilderness Trapper 

• 37 

IV. 

Attacked by Indians 

• 53 

V. 

The Fight on the Knoll 

• 63 

VI. 

Sighting the Enemy 

• 77 

VII. 

The Onslaught at Fort Mims 

• 93 

VIII. 

Old Hickory Appears 

. 108 

IX. 

The Blow at Tallushatchee . 

. 124 

X. 

An Indian Messenger 

• * 3 2 

XI. 

Captured by the Creeks 

. 141 

XII. 

A Fight — and a Revolt . 

. 160 

XIII. 

The Beginning of the End 

• l 7 S 

XIV. 

The Battle of the Horseshoe 

• 185 

XV. 

Life of Andrew Jackson . 

. 19* 


3 





Illustrations 


PAGE 

“So the Indians are Still Gather- 
ing ? ” . . . . . . Frontispiece 

The Trapper was Seated in the Doorway 45 

They Sighted the Fort .... 99 

The Arrows of the Creeks Rained About 

Them 163 


On the Border with Andrew Jackson 


5 












# 























On the Border With 
Andrew Jackson 

CHAPTER I 

IN THE CREEK COUNTRY 

“ Much good place for camp ! Heap fine 
water I ” 

It was a young Cherokee brave who 
spoke ; from the back of his wiry little 
sorrel horse he pointed ahead to a small 
stream which could be seen winding its 
way among the trees. 

“ Yes ; it looks as if it had been made for 
a camp, Running Elk,” replied a bronzed 
athletic white boy. “ What do you say, 
Frank, shall we pitch the tent there to- 
night?” 

Frank Lawrence glanced toward the sun, 
which was already lowering toward the 
horizon. 


7 


ON THE BORDER 


“We might as well, Jack,” replied he. 
“ We couldn’t go much farther, anyway.” 

Jack Davis shook the rein of his black 
horse ; and so the three rode toward the 
stream, which was perhaps a quarter of a 
mile away. It was late autumn and the 
year was 1812. The Muscogee country, as 
the state of Alabama was then called, was 
green with mighty forests, and in places 
almost untrodden by the foot of the white 
man ; game was to be met on every hand ; 
and the red huntsmen ranged the hills and 
valleys, seeking not only food, but their 
foes as well. 

The young Cherokee warrior led a pack- 
horse which bore upon its back provisions 
and camp equipment. The youthful savage 
was a handsome, supple fellow, attired in 
the picturesque dress of his nation, and 
carrying a bow and quiver of arrows ; also 
a tomahawk and knife hung at his belt. 

Jack Davis was about eighteen years of 
age ; he had been born and reared upon the 
8 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Tennessee border, and had the keen, hardy 
look which comes of facing nature in her 
most rugged aspects. Frank Lawrence, on 
the other hand, was a product of civiliza- 
tion ; he was fresh from Richmond ; and 
while he had little of the bronze and none 
of the woodcraft of the other lad, still, 
ounce for ounce, it would have been a cun- 
ning choice to select the one who would 
have endured the greater fatigue. 

Both wore fringed leggings, hunting 
shirts and coonskin caps ; from the shoul- 
ders of each hung a long rifle, powder horn 
and bullet pouch ; in their belts were thrust 
broad bladed hunting knives and keen 
edged hatchets. 

“ Since we got down into this country 
Tve noticed a great number of small streams 
much like the one ahead,” remarked Frank. 
“ It's as though there were a sort of network 
of them.” 

Jack laughed. 

“ I noticed that, too, first time I got 
9 


ON THE BORDER 


down this far,” replied he. “ Those streams 
gave the redskins of this region their name. 
They call themselves Muscogees ; but the 
whites call them Creeks.” 

“ It seems to me I’ve heard Running Elk 
speak of them by another name,” said 
Frank, with a glance at the Cherokee. 

“ Oh, yes, Red Sticks,” said Jack. “ They 
get that name from the war club they carry, 
which is always colored red.” 

“ Red Stick no good,” spoke Running 
Elk, calmly. “ Much bad medicine. Cher- 
okee hate ’um.” 

Both the white boys laughed at this un- 
hesitating declaration ; their nags loped 
easily forward over the velvet-like sward 
toward the creek ; they were intent only 
upon camp, a good supper and a com- 
fortable rest after the long ride through 
the wilderness. Suddenly Running Elk 
reined in his sorrel horse so sharply as to 
throw it back upon its haunches. With a 
gesture of warning he threw up one hand, 
io 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ Stop ! " said he. 

The white boys scarcely needed the 
spoken warning ; they had noted the 
young brave's sudden stop ; and their own 
was almost as short. They were at the top 
of a hill. 

“What is it?" asked Frank, surprised. 

But Jack Davis had no need to ask ; 
his sharp eyes, as accustomed as an Indian's 
to the signs of the forest, swept the growth 
of trees ahead, and at once saw the cause of 
Running Elk's action. 

“ Look there,'' said he, pointing. 

Frank followed the direction of the 
indicating finger ; from above the softly 
waving tops of the trees curled a slim 
column of smoke. 

“ Hello ! ” said he. “ Some one else has 
camped there." 

All three drew back into the cover of a 
clump of beech ; Jack dismounted and 
began to examine the ground. And as he 
worked over it, going from place to place 

ii 


ON THE BORDER 

like a keen-scented hound, Frank joined 
him. 

“ Any tracks ? ” he inquired with in- 
terest. 

“ I don't see any here," replied the young 
borderer. “ They may have come another 
way." Upon his hands and knees, taking 
advantage of the tall grass, fallen trees and 
hummocks of earth, he made his way to the 
right of their own trail. “ Keep as close to 
the ground as you can," he warned Frank, 
who followed him. “ We don't know who 
they are, and as they are almost sure to be 
on the watch, we don't want to be seen 
until we know they're friends." 

About two score yards from their original 
stopping place he paused. 

“ Injuns ! " said he. 

Frank looked at the signs; there were 
the hoof tracks of a dozen or more horses ; 
and the broad drag of the poles in the midst 
of these was unmistakable. 

“ I suppose none but the redskins drag 
12 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

their camp stuff on poles at their horses’ 
heels that way, eh ? ” asked he. 

“ No,” replied Jack Davis. “ But there 
are other signs, too. If you’ll notice, they 
rode in single file ; Injuns almost always 
do that and white men never, unless the 
trail is narrow. And look where one of 
the redskins dismounted ! See the print of 
his moccasin in the dust? Only Injuns 
have feet shaped like that.” 

They made their way, in the same 
cautious fashion, back to the place where 
the young Cherokee guarded the horses. 

“They’re Injuns,” said Jack. 

Running Elk nodded ; he did not seem 
at all surprised. 

“ Red Sticks,” spoke he. And then : 
“ How many?” 

“ About ten — with packhorses, and lodge 
poles.” 

This latter statement seemed to attract 
the young warrior’s attention. His keen 
eyes went in the direction of the curling 

13 


ON THE BORDER 

column of smoke as it was lifted above the 
tree tops. 

“ Not hunters/’ said he. “ Party from 
long way off.” 

“ What makes you think that, Running 
Elk?” asked Frank. 

“ Hunters no carry tepee ; pack meat on 
horses’ backs.” 

From their concealment behind the clump 
of beeches, the three watched the ascending 
smoke for some little time ; then as the sun 
sank below the line of forest and the 
shadows began to gather, Jack said : 

“ Well, it looks as though we couldn’t 
venture down to the creek, at this point, 
anyhow ; so, if we’re going to have any sup- 
per, we’d best be looking for another camp- 
ing place.” 

Remounting, they headed away to the 
west ; darkness came upon them as they 
reached a narrow ravine. Here they built 
a small fire, carefully masked so as not to 
be observed by a chance prowler ; some 
14 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

small game, shot daring the afternoon, was 
roasted upon their ramrods, with flour cakes 
baked upon the gray coals. While they 
ate, Frank looked soberly at Jack. 

“ I suppose we’ve been very fortunate in 
not coming upon any roving Indian bands 
before now,” said he. 

Jack nodded. 

“ We slid through this whole Creek region 
as quietly as you please,” said he. “ Never 
had to stop for anything except to kill a bit 
of meat now and then, and get a little sleep.” 

“ Well, now that we have run into a lot 
of reds,” said Frank, “ I can’t help blaming 
myself for dragging you away down here 
and getting you into danger.” 

Jack, as he polished a bone to which 
some scraps of meat still clung, grinned 
good-humoredly. 

“ Danger ! ” said he. “ Why, the Injuns 
haven’t seen us ; and a sight of the smoke 
from their camp-fire won’t do us any 
harm.” 


i5 


ON THE BORDER 


The young Virginian also grinned at 
this ; but he resumed, soberly enough : 

“ Our coming on this band so unexpect- 
edly has made me think. Here we are, 
away in the heart of this wilderness ; 
there’s possibly not a white man nearer 
than Fort Mims, and that’s fifty miles 
away. Of course, we’re armed and our 
horses are good ones ; but, if we were at- 
tacked by a party of Creeks of any size, 
we’d stand a poor chance.” 

“ We’re taking the regular chance of the 
border,” said Jack. “ No more, no less.” 

“ I know that ; and as it’s a kind of a 
desperate one, now that I get to thinking 
about it, it worries me. Not that I care 
very much for myself,” hastily. “ It’s not 
that ; for it’s my affair, and it’s only right 
that I should meet any of the dangers con- 
nected with it. But neither you nor Run- 
ning Elk are concerned, except through 
friendly interest in me ; and, still, your 
danger is as great as mine.” 

16 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Jack listened to this with attention ; but 
that he did not regard the situation with 
the same seriousness as his friend was evi- 
dent by the twinkle in his gray eye. 

“ Well, seeing that this little expedition 
of yours is not any different from the hunt- 
ing trips which Running Elk and myself 
take now and then, we're not as ready as 
you are for the things that are likely to pop 
out on us suddenly. Richmond's not like 
this border land of ours ; and the inconve- 
niences, such as hostile redskins, panthers 
and other such varmints, are not so big to 
us as they might look to some one not used 
to them." He wiped his mouth upon the 
sleeve of his hunting shirt and sat comfort- 
ably back against a tree. “ So don't worry 
about us, old boy ; this is nothing new to 
Running Elk and me ; just the day's work, 
you might say ; and if we weren't down 
here with you, we'd be somewhere else, just 
as dangerous, on our own account." 

“ Well," said Frank, “ it's very good of 
i7 


ON THE BORDER 


you to look at it that way, Jack, and I hope 
we’ll come through the trip without any 
great danger. But just the same I don’t 
mind admitting that I’ll be pretty well sat- 
isfied when it’s over.” 

“ As such things go,” said Jack, “ you 
ought to be somewhere near the neighbor- 
hood of that old French land grant you’re 
looking for. If my calculations are right, 
inside a day or so you ought to have it lo- 
cated.” 

“ Let us hope so,” said Frank, fervently. 
“Then my trouble will be over.” 

But in the dim glow of the masked camp- 
fire Jack’s face looked somewhat dubious. 

“ Fact is,” said he, “ I think your father 
made a little mistake when .he took that 
old French grant in payment for a big 
debt.” 

“ I hope not,” said Frank, anxiously. 
“ For it’s about all he has now ; if it doesn’t 
turn out fortunately, things will go very 
badly with him.” 

18 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ It's not so much that I doubt the value 
of the grant,” said Jack. “ But the Creeks 
claim this whole region ; and it would be a 
hard thing to make good a claim of white 
ownership, no matter how small the tract. 
The whole tribe’d be down on you like a 
landslide before you’d know it.” 

“ But the government would back me up. 
The grant is a perfectly honest one ; the 
land was once purchased from the Indians 
by the French government, which granted 
it to the man who transferred it to my 
father. Upon the United States purchasing 
the control of this territory from Napoleon 
a few years ago, our government recognized 
all legitimate claims of this sort ; so there 
should be no real trouble.” 

“ Maybe not in the courts ; but, as I said 
before, the Creeks will be sure to have a 
word or two to say.” 

As the young Tennesseean spoke, Run- 
ning Elk, who was reclining upon the 
ground beside the fire, lifted his head. 

19 


ON THE BORDER 


From across the stillness of the night there 
came a dull, throbbing sound. 

“ War drum ! ” said the Cherokee ; and 
the hands of all three reached for their 
weapons. 


20 


CHAPTER II 


THE COMING OF TECUMSEH 

The three youths stood there, at their 
lonely camp-fire, in the heart of the Mus- 
cogee wilderness, with darkness all about 
them, listening to the steady, monotonous 
beat of the drum. 

“ That's kind of a new thing to me," said 
Jack Davis. “ Sounding a war drum must 
be a new fashion, eh, Running Elk? ” 

“ Heap big medicine ! ” replied the young 
Cherokee. “ Big war ! Much pow-wow ! ” 

Jack kicked apart the embers which 
made their small fire ; then he trod them 
out after the manner of an experienced 
woodsman. 

Frank Lawrence, after a space of listen- 
ing, said : 

“ There is something unusual in that 
21 


ON THE BORDER 


sound, then, is there, Jack? Out of the 
ordinary ? ” 

“ Never heard it before except in an 
Indian village when some kind of a cere- 
mony was going on.” 

“ Before I left Richmond,” said Frank, 
and there was some concern in his voice, 
“ the newspapers were full of Indian news ; 
reports of all sorts were going about; it 
seems that the savages had finally put their 
heads together, and were planning a league 
of tribes to resist the advance of the white 
man.” 

“ Yes ; we’ve had the leaders of that 
thing down here,” said Jack. “ But the 
movement was not among the tribes here 
on the southwestern border.” 

“ Ugh ! ” said Running Elk ; and there 
was that about his exclamation which said 
he was not quite sure upon the point in 
question. 

“ Suppose,” said Frank, “ we leave our 
horses tied here, and move a little nearer 
22 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

to the Indian camp. There may be some- 
thing going on that will be worth know- 
ing” 

“ All right,” agreed Jack, willingly 
enough. “ I’m always curious to learn 
what the reds are up to myself.” 

So the boys saw to their mounts, and the 
pack animal ; then with their long rifles in 
the hollows of their arms, and Running 
Elk with his bow ready strung and his 
quiver of arrows handy for use, they moved 
quietly forward in the direction of the now 
intermittent sound. 

There was no moon that night ; the sky 
was without stars ; nevertheless there came 
a soft coppery glow through the low hang- 
ing clouds which enabled them to make 
their way along without any great diffi- 
culty. But finally the beat of the drum 
ceased. 

“ We’ll locate them by the camp-fire,” 
whispered Jack Davis to Frank. “ See, 
there it is, ahead among the trees.” 

23 


ON THE BORDER 


Softly their moccasined feet padded the 
earth ; carefully, noiselessly they advanced, 
flitting from tree to tree, from bush to bush. 
Because they were in the heart of their 
own country, the Creeks evidently had no 
fear of attack ; therefore they had placed 
no sentinels about the camp. And because 
of this the boys found it possible to ap- 
proach near enough to get a good view of 
the encampment through the open places 
in the tangle of brush. 

In a circle sat a score of savages, each 
wearing a highly ornamental head-dress of 
colored feathers ; their faces were streaked 
with paints of various colors and they 
passed a long stemmed, ornamented pipe 
from one to the other. 

“ Hello,” breathed Jack, his accustomed 
eye taking in the unusual features of the 
scene at a glance. “ What does this mean ? ” 
One splendid looking savage, by fea- 
tures evidently a half-breed, attracted the 
attention of Frank Lawrence. 

24 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ That looks like a chief,” said he, in the 
same low tone as his comrade. 

“ Heap much chief,” spoke Running Elk. 
“ Him Weatherford.” 

This name, dreaded along the entire 
border, caused a thrill to run through Jack 
Davis. 

“ The Red Warrior ! ” He stared at the 
famous leader of the Creeks, who sat like a 
grimly carven statue within the fire-lit circle. 
“ What in the world can he be doing here ? ” 

Frank’s eyes left Weatherford and curi- 
ously roved over the remainder of the 
band ; two who sat side by side, and 
whose commanding personality and differ- 
ent head-dress made them stand out from 
the others, now claimed his notice. 

“ They must be out of the ordinary, too,” 
said he. “ They look different, somehow.” 

Jack’s eyes went to the two. 

“ They are not Creeks,” said he, for he 
was well acquainted with the head-dress of 
that tribe. “ They are strangers.” 

25 


ON THE BORDER 


“ Shawnee/’ spoke Running Elk. “ One 
great chief. Other much medicine.” 

Frank Lawrence, who stood beside Jack, 
felt him start suddenly, and heard him 
draw in a long breath. 

“ Shawnees ! ” said Jack in a whisper. 
“ One a great chief, the other a medicine 
man ! ” His hand went out and closed upon 
the arm of the friendly Cherokee. “ What 
more do you know of them, Running Elk ? ” 
“ They come to the villages of the 
Cherokee before last harvest moon. They 
are from the north. The chief is Tecumseh 
and the medicine man is Elskwatawa.” 

“ By Jingo ! ” Jack’s voice was lifted to 
such a pitch that Frank quickly grasped 
him by the shoulder to recall him to a sense 
of their position. Then in a lower tone, 
the frontier youth continued : “ Then the 
thing is spreading! These two are down 
here again trying to get the Creeks and other 
tribes into the league against the whites ! ” 
Tecumseh, which, translated, means 
26 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ Wild-Cat-Springing-on-its-Prey,” was a 
Shawnee, and perhaps one of the most 
famous and sagacious of all the savage 
chieftains who figure in the stirring history 
of the border. At the time in which the 
boys saw him beside the camp-fire in the 
Alabama wilderness he was about forty-five 
years of age. He was the son of a Shawnee 
chief, but his mother had been a Creek ; his 
birthplace was Old Piqua, near where the 
town of Springfield, Ohio, now stands. 
Elskwatawa, which means “ the Loud 
Voice,” was his brother, a Shawnee sorcerer 
of great fame and known throughout the 
frontier of that day as the “ Prophet.” 
These two, shrewd and able far above their 
race, saw that if the advance of the white 
men were not stopped the power of the In- 
dian would be stripped from him forever. 

So they set about forming a confederation 
of all the tribes, and in a solid body strik- 
ing a desperate blow to regain the hunting 
grounds wrested from them by the paleface. 

27 


ON THE BORDER 


The fame of the Prophet, as has been 
stated, was very great ; the credulous red 
man looked upon him with awe, and never 
for a moment thought of doubting any 
utterances he saw fit to make. Tecumseh 
shrewdly saw the value of this ; with mystic 
jargon, with religious mummery, the super- 
stitions of the tribes were played upon until 
the confederation became a thing of fear to 
the scattered whites in the border settle- 
ments. From near and far the savages 
vowed to follow the commands of the 
“ Great Spirit ” as voiced by the Prophet ; 
the Delawares, the Wyandottes, the Otta- 
was, the Kickapoos, the Winnebagoes and 
Chippewas had been dancing and preparing 
for the great blow at the white interloper 
for many months ; and evidently not satis- 
fied with this, the two leaders had secretly 
made their way south a second time, and 
were now, most likely, engaged in trying to 
arouse the Creeks and other nations against 
the settlers. 


28 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

All this passed through the minds of 
Frank and Jack ; for they were well 
acquainted with the force behind the move- 
ment; indeed, it had been the one topic 
talked of in the lonely cabins or the little 
hamlets at which they halted during the 
journey through the forest. 

“ Well, if Tecumseh’s got down here 
again, and the Prophet with him, there’s 
likely to be an outbreak,” spoke Jack, with 
assurance. “ For the Creeks have been 
acting ugly for some time, and it’ll not take 
much to set them on the war-path.” 

Frank turned to Running Elk. 

“ How did they do with your people ? ” 
he asked. 

The young savage lifted his taut strung 
bow. 

“ Cherokee is friend to paleface,” said he. 
“ Tecumseh he go away much mad.” 

“ Good ! ” said Frank. “ I hope it 
happens the same way with the Creeks.” 

“ Tecumseh is Creek on his mother’s 
29 


ON THE BORDER 


side,” said Jack. “ That’ll weigh heavily 
in his favor — if anything is needed to turn 
the scale.” 

All this talk had been carried on in the 
most hushed of whispers ; and not for a 
moment had the three taken their eyes 
from the painted and warlike circle in the 
glare of the camp-fire. That the Indians 
were also talking was evident ; but the boys 
were too far away to hear what was being 
said. After a little while Jack’s curiosity 
mastered him. 

“ I wonder if we couldn’t get a little 
closer without much danger,” whispered 
he. “ Seems to me there must be lots of 
things in that talk that we ought to know.” 

Apparently the other two were of the same 
mind, for they at once agreed. So softly, 
and with slow, pantherish steps they parted 
the brush and moved nearer the savage 
camp-fire. Not a branch was permitted to 
rustle, not a twig nor dead leaf to crackle 
under foot. Jack went first, and the young 
30 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Cherokee was second ; Frank Lawrence 
stepped as nearly in their tracks as he was 
able and imitated their movements as 
nearly as he could make them out in the 
partial darkness. 

By great good fortune, a large green tree 
had fallen quite close to the spot where the 
Creek camp was pitched ; the three boys, 
snugly ensconced behind this, had now a 
vastly improved view of the scene, and, 
what was of equal interest, could hear al- 
most all that was said. Weatherford was 
speaking, and Jack, who had a practical ac- 
quaintanceship with a number of Indian 
dialects, had no trouble in understanding 
the deep-voiced, solemn utterance. 

“ Word has reached the Muscogee vil- 
lages of the doings of their brothers, many 
suns to the north. And the news made us 
glad.” A murmur went up from the other 
savages of the Creek nation ; it was one of 
approval of the words of the Red Warrior ; 
and Weatherford proceeded: “ Swift run- 

31 


ON THE BORDER 


ners reached us from the far country of the 
Shawnees. The Muscogee was glad to hear 
that the great chief Tecumseh, and Elskwa- 
tawa, who speaks the words of wisdom, 
were once more journeying through the 
forests to visit their brothers. We have 
journeyed to meet them ; we have smoked 
the pipe of friendship. Let Tecumseh and 
Elskwatawa speak.” 

For a space after the sonorous voice of 
Weatherford had died away there was a 
silence. The circle of fantastically painted 
and befeathered Indians remained as still as 
graven images ; then the Shawnee chieftain 
spoke : 

“ We are glad that the great chief 
Weatherford speaks with the voice of 
welcome. We are glad that the chiefs and 
the old men of the Muscogee greet us with 
kindness. It is well ; for the blood of the 
Muscogee runs warm in my veins. Many 
suns have passed since we left the hunting 
grounds of our tribe to seek council with 
32 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

our brothers ; the trails have been long, the 
rivers swift, the mountain passes hard ; but 
we are here, and we are heavy with the mes- 
sage of the red man’s wrongs.” 

Again there was a silence, and then Te- 
cumseh went on : 

“ It is well that my voice is only for the 
ears of the old men. For they are wise, 
and will judge well of what I have to say. 
Young men are quick, but they have no 
wisdom ; they are strong when the war- 
whoop sounds, for their knives and toma- 
hawks are keen, and their arrows straight. 
But in the council they are like young bears. 
My words are the wisdom of the Muscogee ; 
let the old men give ear.” 

Elskwatawa sat silently while his brother 
spoke. As became a wonder-worker, he 
was decked with the teeth and claws of 
bears and hill-cats ; a string made up of 
skulls of squirrels hung from his neck. 
Totems and charms were plentifully distrib- 
uted about his person ; a broad band, made 
33 


ON THE BORDER 


of the skin of a rattlesnake, was bound about 
his brow. The lank hair of this sinister 
looking savage hung down over his shoul- 
ders ; his eyes were keen and restless. 
While those of all the others who made up 
the savage circle were fixed upon Tecumseh, 
his were darting here and there, restlessly. 
More than once they shifted in the direc- 
tion of the fallen gum tree ; and each time 
Running Elk warningly nudged the white 
boys crouched at his side. 

But Jack Davis feared no danger; he 
noted from time to time the wandering 
glance of the Prophet ; but he felt sure that 
the savage, no matter how keen his vision, 
could not penetrate the thick shadows 
thrown by the branches and stem of the 
fallen tree. 

Tecumseh began to speak in a sing-song 
voice ; item by item he took the aggressions 
of the paleface ; wrong by wrong he took the 
deeds against his people. On the bravery 
of the red man he dwelt fervently ; of the 
34 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

treachery and evil-doing of the whites he 
spoke with a tongue of scorn. Bit by bit 
the tide of his anger grew ; key by key his 
voice lifted until it was shrill with fury. 
His savage audience was stirred profoundly 
by his recital ; their customary stoicism was 
gradually shaken off; his rage infected 
them ; they swayed their bodies to and fro, 
their plumes nodding in the fire glow. 

The interest and attention of Jack Davis 
was almost equal to that of the Creeks ; he 
leaned forward, drinking in the utterances 
of the Shawnee eagerly. 

“ And now,” spoke Tecumseh, “ at last 
the end has come. Suns have risen and 
gone down upon the white man's advance, 
and the red man’s retreat before him. 
Moons have begun and moons have ended, 
and more and more the forest rings with 
the stroke of the axe which means death to 
the hunting grounds of our fathers. The 
march of the white man is the march of an 
evil spirit; the red man must stop this 
35 


ON THE BORDER 


march or his day is done ; he must stop it 
or he will find his grave on the great plains, 
in the shadow of those mountains beyond 
which lies another sea.” 

The sound of the last word still lingered 
in the air when the Prophet suddenly 
leaped erect; his tomahawk was snatched 
from his belt, his right arm went back like 
lightning. There was a whistling hum of 
the weapon as it flew through the air ; then 
the sharp blade bit deep into a branch of 
the gum tree close to Jack Davis' head. 


36 


CHAPTER III 


THE WILDERNESS TRAPPER 

The haft of the hatchet was still a-quiver 
from the Prophet’s cast when Jack Davis’ 
long rifle spoke in reply. Then, with a 
hiss, an arrow from the bow of Running 
Elk found its mark ; Frank’s piece cracked 
sharply, and then all three turned and 
darted away through the trees. 

Behind them arose a terrific din ; the 
Creeks, amazed at the unexpected happen- 
ing, could, for a space, do nothing but yell 
their surprise and anger. Then they seized 
their weapons ; arrows began to sing their 
swift flights over the heads of the running 
boys ; a few rifles spoke spitefully ; but in 
the darkness the aim of the Indians was 
bad. 

As swiftly as they could travel, the lads 
37 


ON THE BORDER 


tore through the woods ; emerging from 
this their way was easier and they could 
make better time. When about a half a 
mile from the camp of the Creeks, Jack 
paused and his comrades drew up beside 
him. After listening a moment, the youth- 
ful borderer said : 

“ They are not after us ; we must have 
given them a scare.” 

“ Creek not know how many,” said Run- 
ning Elk. “ Him think plenty white 
man.” 

“ Well, I'm glad enough for that,” spoke 
Frank, as he mopped his face with a hand- 
kerchief which he wore about his neck. 
“ It would not be any too comfortable with 
that crowd pounding at our heels.” 

They waited for perhaps a half hour for 
some sounds of pursuit ; but as none came, 
they resumed their course toward the aban- 
doned camp where their horses were tied. 

“ At daylight the Creeks will be stirring,” 
said Jack, “ and then they’ll find our tracks 
38 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

and learn how few there are of us. So the 
best thing we can do is to mount and be on 
our way before they know too much about 
us.” 

“ A good idea,” said Frank. 

“ Creek good trailer,” admitted Running 
Elk. “ Find track, like wolf.” 

Accordingly they saddled, untied and 
mounted their horses ; then in Indian file 
they rode away in the semi-darkness of the 
coppery sky. 

Jack Davis and Frank Lawrence had 
been friends for almost ten years. Jack’s 
father was a prosperous farmer with a great 
tract of land which he had won from the 
wilderness of Tennessee, and the boy had 
been brought up at the plow in the plant- 
ing season, harvesting the crop in the au- 
tumn, and in the fall and winter ranging 
the woods with his rifle, accompanied by 
friendly Indians, or by some old trapper 
who had spent his life in the wilds. 

But there had been three years in which 
39 


ON THE BORDER 


Jack had gone to school. The school se- 
lected for him had been at Richmond and 
kept by a dapper, kindly old Frenchman 
who knew much, and had the knack of im- 
parting it. It was here that Jack and 
Frank first met ; they became chums, and 
during those weeks in which the school- 
master saw fit to close his establishment at 
Christmas time, and during the heated 
term Jack was always carried enthusiastic- 
ally away to the fine old house on the banks 
of the James, outside the city. 

Frank’s father had then been a man of 
wealth and social position, but things, as 
his son had told Jack beside the camp that 
night, had changed. He had great losses 
in various ventures. And now this old 
French grant in the heart of the Creek 
country, once looked upon lightly enough, 
was all that stood between the old gentle- 
man and real want. 

Frank had realized this with a shock, 
and at once he set about turning the land to 
40 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

some practical account. First it had to be 
located, and that meant a journey through 
the wilderness. With the thought of this 
journey came one of Jack. 

“ The very fellow to go with me ! ” 
Frank had exclaimed. “ He's as learned in 
the lore of the woods as the oldest trapper." 

So away rode Frank into Tennessee and 
put the matter before his friend. Jack 
leaped at the idea ; a venture into the woods 
appealed to him mightily ; and at once he 
sent word to a Cherokee village, two score 
miles distant, for the young hunter, Run- 
ning Elk, companion of many an exploit 
with the wild denizens of the forest. 

They had been out something like two 
weeks when they met with the adventure 
related in the preceding chapter ; but save 
for two bears and a panther, which gave 
Frank a very thrilling moment, they had 
had few experiences. But the scene at the 
savage camp-fire, the streaked faces of the 
Creek council, the words of the Red War- 

41 


ON THE BORDER 

rior and of Tecumseh had been ominous 
and impressed themselves upon the boys’ 
minds. 

“If the Injuns ever really join together 
for a war against the whites, they’ll sweep 
the border like flame for a while,” observed 
Jack, soberly, as they rode along. “ The 
settlers are far apart, and the soldiers would 
be a long time getting into action.” 

“ I hope it never comes,” spoke Frank, 
fervently. “ It will gain nothing for the 
tribes, and it will cost many an honest man 
his life.” 

“ Big war ! ” said Running Elk, confi- 
dently. “ Heap fight. Much kill. Prophet 
great medicine. Injun fool ! Soldiers shoot 
’um like wolf.” 

However, whatever the prospects for an 
Indian uprising, the mission of the boys at 
this time was to locate the old land grant, 
the position of which was set down upon a 
chart which Frank carried in the breast of 
his buckskin hunting shirt. Jack now 
42 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

dwelt rather gravely upon the situation ; 
he felt that it would be well to return to 
the settlements and give warning as to the 
presence of Tecumseh and the Prophet 
among the Creeks, but he couldn’t very 
well see how it could be done at that time. 
It was daylight and they were seated beside 
a fire, kindled upon the banks of a small 
stream, and eating their breakfast of ash 
cake and baked woodcock when an idea 
occurred to the youthful borderer. 

“ We’re not more than a day and a 
half’s travel from old Joe Grant’s trapping 
grounds,” said he, delighted at the thought. 
“ Joe will be going to the settlements for 
traps, powder and provisions to carry on his 
winter work. If we can reach him before he 
starts, he’ll carry the news we have to tell.” 

Frank was equally pleased at this plan ; 
and after a rest until noon, for both they 
and their horses were tired out by the 
all night ride to escape the Creeks, they 
mounted once more and headed in the 
43 


ON THE BORDER 

direction of the old trapper’s cabin in the 
woods. 

Old Joe Grant was one of those unique 
backwoods characters so plentiful in the 
early days of the fur hunters. He had a 
line of traps, in season, for miles along the 
banks of the streams ; he hunted bear and 
hill-cats and deer, and lived in a small log 
house in the shelter of a huge, uprearing 
rock, in a region into which man, white or 
red, seldom ventured. Here with a pack- 
horse and a brace of huge dogs, almost as 
savage as wolves, he had lived for years, 
only venturing into the settlements in the 
spring to sell his furs, and in the early fall 
to lay in his necessities, as Jack had said, 
for the winter. 

At about sundown next day as the three 
were riding through a depression between 
two hills, they heard the deep bay of dogs ; 
in another quarter of an hour they sighted 
the lonely cabin. The trapper was seated 
in the doorway, his rifle at his side, mend- 
44 



THE TRAPPER WAS SEATED IN THE DOORWAY 


ON THE BORDER 


ing a trap. The two white boys shouted 
and waved their caps as they approached ; 
the huge hounds which had winded them 
from afar rushed forward, their red jaws 
gaping, and growling deep in their mighty 
chests. 

“ Down, Bully ! Down, Snow ! ” cried the 
trapper. At sight of the horsemen he had 
dropped the trap and seized his rifle ; but 
recognizing Jack he arose, shouted once 
more to the dogs, and advanced with a 
broad smile. 

“ Wal, wal ! ” said he, “ this here is a sur- 
prise ! I wasn’t calculatin’ on no visitors. 
Howdy, Injun,” to Running Elk. “ Light, 
lads, and have a snack and a shake-down 
for the night.” 

Both Bully and Snow, who was a white 
dog, had subsided at seeing their master so 
friendly with the newcomers ; they now 
sniffed inquiringly at the horses’ heels and 
at the boys themselves when they rode up 
to the log house and alighted. The lads 
46 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

found a place to picket their horses where 
there was plenty of grass ; then they joined 
the trapper, who was already gathering 
dried leaves and twigs to start a fire. 

“ Got some good fresh pickerel,” stated 
old Joe, “ and some bear meat which was 
killed only yesterday morning. Hope you 
got some flour in your pack ; bread's mighty 
scarce with me just now.” 

“ We've got quite a lot of it,” said Frank, 
who had been introduced to the old back- 
woodsman and received a hearty hand-grasp 
from him. 

While the fish and strips of bear meat 
were cooking at one fire and the bread was 
baking in the ash of another, the two white 
boys took a plunge into a deep clear pool 
which was close at hand, and then ran 
themselves dry in the last glancing barbs 
of the sun. Then after they had all four 
done complete justice to the meal, they 
drew inside the cabin, where old Joe 
lighted some home-made candles of bear’s 
47 


ON THE BORDER 


grease ; settling back upon the skins of 
bear, deer and catamount which covered 
the floor, they fell into a conversation 
which was one of the most interesting in 
which Frank Lawrence had ever taken 
part. 

The candles flared yellow, lighting up 
the rough log walls chinked with clay ; 
from the peak of the roof hung dried roots 
and herbs gathered by the trapper for me- 
dicinal use ; heaps of pelts were piled up in 
one corner ; others were stretched upon the 
walls to dry. Upon the door was the skin 
of a panther which in life must have been 
a monster ; bears’ claws and teeth, traps, 
fishing-tackle, hatchets, and axes, and an 
extra gun also hung upon the wall. There 
was a huge fireplace at one side, built of 
stones and dried clay. With a little thrill 
of content, Frank pictured the cabin as it 
must be in the winter, with a fire of logs 
roaring up the chimney’s wide throat ; all 
was snow and cold without, the dreary 
48 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

wilderness stretched away on every hand, 
but, within, the fire-glow gave off a cheer 
and comfort missing in a more stately 
dwelling. 

“Wal, what brings you younkers so far 
down this a-way ? ” questioned the old man. 
“ Never thought to see anybody this sum- 
mer.” 

Jack informed the trapper as to the na- 
ture of their errand in the wilderness ; the 
old man, who had resumed the tinkering 
at the trap which their arrival had inter- 
rupted, listened with many nods of the 
head. 

“ Some day them there old French grants 
will be worth a mighty heap of money," 
said he at length when the boy had done. 
“ But, in the first place, they'll have to be 
powerful well proven ; and then it'll not 
be until the Creeks is larned a lesson." 

This naturally brought up the subject of 
the boys' journey and as Jack related the 
adventure with the Creeks, and the words 
49 


ON THE BORDER 


of Tecumseh, the ancient woodsman put 
the trap aside and gave the matter his un- 
divided attention. After the youngster 
had related all the details, old Joe began 
to ask questions; and when Jack had an- 
swered these at length, there was a silence. 
The trapper sat bolt upright, his shoulders 
resting against the wall, and his heavy 
white brows bent. 

“ So them varmint Shawnees have got 
into the Muscogee country again, have 
they ? ” said he. “ Well, I’ve been ex- 
pecting it for some time now ; but I didn't 
think to hear of it so soon, for all that." 

“ As we couldn’t turn back from our 
hunt just yet," said Frank, “ Jack thought 
you’d carry the news to the settlements 
when you went in for your stores." 

“ That I will," replied old Joe, grimly. 
“ I’ll carry it right enough ; and I’ll be 
heading that way in four days’ time. And 
it won’t be none too pleasant for them to 
listen to, youngsters ; for the Spaniards in 
50 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Florida and the British on the northern 
frontier will give the redskins rifles, and 
ball and powder, and with plenty of them 
same articles, the varmints’ll be more dan- 
gerous than ever.” 

“ The Spaniards have never been any too 
friendly on the border,” said Jack, resent- 
fully ; “ and the Creeks, when it gets too 
hot for them, will race for Spanish terri- 
tory.” 

“ I suppose the outbreak of the war with 
England will be of great advantage to 
Tecumseh,” spoke Frank. Congress had 
only recently declared war against the 
British because of that nation’s aggression 
on the sea. “ And, if the truth were known, 
I’ll venture that’s one of his reasons for 
starting an Indian uprising at this time.” 

“ Like as not. The Shawnees are a cute 
lot of redskins,” commented the old trapper. 
“ And Tecumseh and his brother, the med- 
icine man, are the sharpest of them all.” 

The boys slept well that night in the 
5i 


ON THE BORDER 


trapper’s cabin ; and next morning after a 
good backwoods breakfast, they bid the old 
man good-bye. 

“ Take care of yourselves,” said he. 
“ With things as they are, there’s no telling 
what might happen. Always be on the 
safe side of anything that turns up, if you 
can fix it that way. For you are in the 
enemy’s country, and there are only three 
of you.” 

He shook each of them by the hand. 

“ If you see my father,” said Jack, “ tell 
him I’m all right and expect to keep that 
way.” 

“ I’ll do it, eon,” promised old Joe. 

“ And say that we’ll be back as soon as 
we can finish up our errand,” said Frank. 

The trapper waved his hand to them as 
they rode away ; and the huge dogs barked 
their good-bye as they disappeared in the 
green of the forest. 


52 


CHAPTER IV 


ATTACKED BY INDIANS 

Their mounts having had a good rest 
and the boys themselves being more than 
usually refreshed, they made considerable 
progress that day. Night found them at 
the ford of a large stream. 

“ Hello, ” said Jack, as they drew up at 
the ford and gazed about, “ this looks like 
a place I’ve seen before.” 

“ Cache on other side,” said Running 
Elk, who seldom made a mistake in his 
observations. “ Much dried meat. Put 
there two snow moons ago.” 

Jack’s face lit up with recognition. 

“ Why, so it is,” said he. “ I hadn’t 
thought we’d gone so far.” Then to Frank 
he added : “ This is the place we’ve been 
heading for.” 


53 


ON THE BORDER 


“ Is this the Alabama River ? ” asked the 
young Virginian. 

“ Yes,” said Jack. “ And from now on 
we’ll have our bearings pretty well laid out 
for us. Running Elk and myself hunted 
hereabouts two winters ago ; that’s how we 
came to have the country so well in mind.” 

They forded the river and camped for the 
night on the opposite bank ; next morning, 
after breakfast, Frank got out his chart, 
roughly done upon a piece of tanned deer- 
skin in the pigment used by the Indians. 

“ Here,” said he, his finger indicating the 
places on the chart, “ is the Alabama. Just 
below is a place where a smaller stream 
flows into it, and upon the point of land 
between the two is a small clump of trees 
under which is written ‘ Triple Oaks.’ ” 

“ The clump would be three trees, I 
think,” said Jack, “ and pretty big ones, to 
make them stand out so as to be noticed 
more than others.” 

“ I should say so, too,” agreed Frank. 

54 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ There is such a place as that not far 
down-stream,” said Jack. “ At least I think 
there is. I remember some big oaks, just 
at a place where a creek runs into the river. 
But how many there are, I don’t know.” 
Then turning to Running Elk, he asked, 
“ What do you remember about it? ” 

The young Cherokee’s reply was brief 
and comprehensive. 

“ One, two, three,” he counted upon his 
fingers. “ Three oak trees. Grow near 
creek on river bank. Half a sun’s ride.” 

Jack chuckled and nodded to Frank. 

“ He never forgets anything like that.” 

Frank was much gratified. 

“ Good for you, old chap,” said he, slap- 
ping the Cherokee upon the shoulder. To 
Jack he said : “ As we are without instru- 
ments, we couldn’t locate the tract without 
these landmarks, and it’s a great comfort to 
have some one along who knows where the 
landmarks are.” Again his fingers went 
from point to point upon the chart. “ Here, 
55 


ON THE BORDER 


to the north, is a hill ; and around to the 
west is a pine forest ; I think we ought, by 
the help of these, to prove if the three oaks 
you have in mind are the ones in the chart, 
or no.” 

When the horses had finished grazing, 
they were saddled, and the lads sprang 
upon their backs with keen excitement. 
That Running Elk was a most excellent 
judge of distance as well as topography was 
soon made manifest. For just about high 
noon, when the sun was staring like a huge 
fiery ball from directly overhead, Frank 
uttered a cry. 

“ What is it? ” demanded Jack, his hand 
going in the quick, instinctive movement 
of the frontiersman for his weapon. 

“ The triple oaks,” was the reply, and 
Frank pointed over the tree tops. 

Sure enough, as they broke through some 
underbrush upon the river bank, they 
sighted three massive oaks, growing close 
together and towering above their neigh- 
56 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

bors like giants above pigmies. To the left 
of them flowed a slow shallow stream of 
yellowish water which entered and dis- 
colored the river for some distance below. 

“Well, there they are,” said Jack, “just 
as I saw them last, and as they have been 
standing for at least a hundred years.” 

They all dismounted, and their bridles 
were thrown across some low limbs close to 
the water’s edge. Frank got the chart from 
his saddle-bags, and began unrolling it. 

“ With any sort of good luck,” said he, 
“ we’ll have this job over sooner than we 
expected.” 

As he spoke he felt a hand upon his 
shoulder, pressing downward. 

“ Down ! ” came the voice of Jack, 
harshly. “ Don’t look up ! Down ! ” 

His weeks in the wilderness had not been 
without their effect upon the young Vir- 
ginian. He had learned that if a thing 
must be done in the forest, one must do it 
promptly and without question. So he at 
57 


ON THE BORDER 


once dropped to the earth ; as he did so a 
flight of arrows sped over his head, and a 
dozen ballets hummed their course through 
the trees. 

“ Red Sticks,” said Running Elk, from 
behind the gnarled stem of a cottonwood. 
He fitted an arrow to his bow, and as 
Frank, astounded by the suddenness of 
the attack, gazed at him the taut string 
twanged, and a shrill cry from across the 
river told of a victim. 

Almost at the same moment the long 
rifle of Jack Davis spoke, and a second yell 
arose, proving the sureness of his aim. 
Frank now turned his eyes upon the point 
of land upon which stood the triple oaks ; 
to his surprise, he saw among the trees all 
the evidences of a Creek encampment ; and 
a new flight of arrows and volley of rifle 
shots from behind rocks, stumps and trees, 
told of the hiding places of the savages. 

By great good fortune, the boys’ horses, 
at the first sound of the rifles of the hostiles, 
58 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

had broken away from their slight restraint 
and galloped off into the woods, unhurt. 

“ Keep close to the ground,” warned Jack, 
“ and after them. We must not lose sight 
of our mounts, or we’re done for.” 

Running Elk slipped from tree to tree ; 
Jack crawled along the earth with the sup- 
ple movements of a snake. Frank followed 
suit, and in spite of the continuous flight 
of arrows, they reached unharmed the thick 
cover of the trees some distance from the 
river’s brink. 

By great good fortune, the packhorse, 
which was a wise old beast, had brought up 
a few hundred yards away ; and naturally 
the other horses stopped also, and so were 
easily caught. The boys sprang upon their 
backs and went tearing away through the 
aisles of the forest ; and as they did so they 
heard the yells of the Indians, who now 
for the first time became aware of their 
flight. 

“ Do you think they’ll follow ? ” asked 
59 


ON THE BORDER 


Frank, as he and Jack rode side by side for 
a space where the woods was not so dense. 

“ They will if they have noticed how few 
we are,” replied the young borderer. “ And 
if they cross the river, our tracks will tell 
them that.” 

After about an hour’s hard riding they 
slackened their pace, and then at the top of 
a knoll they halted. They had emerged 
from the forest some time ago, and from 
where they were they had a clear view of 
the surrounding country for miles around. 

Away swept the green of the early au- 
tumn, all rippling in the breeze and shining 
in the sunlight. Here and there a splotch 
of yellow or red marked where the fall had 
already set its hand. The sky was cloudless 
and the air very clear. 

“ It’s the sort of a day when we can see 
great distances,” said Frank. “ 1 don’t 
think I remember ever seeing a finer.” 

“ Well, and just because of that,” said 
Jack Davis, with the caution of experience, 
60 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ we'd better not stand here in such full 
view. If there are any reds on our trail, 
they'll mark us, even if they’re still miles 
away." 

“ Ugh ! " agreed Running Elk, in prompt 
approval. “ Creek have good eyes. See 
far I " 

So they drew back below the shoulder of 
the knoll, dismounted and gave the horses a 
breathing space. Frank, as he watched his 
friend, saw that his face was serious and 
that his looks in the direction of the wav- 
ing green forest which they had left behind 
were intense. Running Elk also kept his 
keen black eyes upon the distant woods ; as 
he stood watching, with barbaric compo- 
sure, he had the appearance of a splendidly 
wrought bronze, meant to typify vigilance 
and grace. 

Suddenly Jack spoke. 

“ There they are," said he, pointing. 
“ There's a big band of them, and they are 
following in our tracks like hounds." 

61 


ON THE BORDER 


From out the green of the woods came a 
full score of Creeks. Some were mounted 
and some were afoot. They carried shields 
and spears and bows and arrows ; and here 
and there the metal of a rifle barrel glis- 
tened as the sun’s rays struck it. 

“ They seem to come on boldly, and with- 
out much thought of concealment,” said 
Frank, after he had watched them for a 
moment. “ And that is not at all the way 
I thought Indians made war.” 

“ Um, Creek no care who see,” stated 
Running Elk. “ Got hill, with ring around 
him.” 

“ What’s that? ” said Frank, only partly 
catching the Cherokee’s meaning. 

“ He means that they’ve got us sur- 
rounded,” said Jack Davis. “ And he’s 
right. Just throw a look around.” 

Startled, Frank did so ; his heart gave a 
leap and began to beat swifter ; from all di- 
rections, closing in upon the knoll, were 
bands of armed savages. 

62 


CHAPTER V 


THE FIGHT ON THE KNOLL 

For a moment or two Frank Lawrence 
was too startled to speak ; but when he 
could collect his wits his first action was to 
throw his rifle around in position for use ; 
his second was to look at Jack Davis and 
the Cherokee hunter. 

“ Well,” said he, quietly enough, “ we 
seem to be in for it, don’t we ? ” 

“There’s a good hundred of them, all 
told,” spoke Jack. “ I wonder where they 
all sprang from.” 

“Young men,” said Running Elk. 
“ Braves. Old men in council ; young 
men come afterward.” 

“ That’s it,” cried Jack, grasping at the 
Cherokee hunter’s meaning. “Weather- 
ford, chief of the Creeks, took his old men 
63 


ON THE BORDER 

forward to hear and talk with Tecumseh 
and the prophet at the council fire. The 
young men, or warriors, were left a few 
days’ march behind ; they were on their 
way to join their chief when we ran into 
them at the river.” 

“ Worse luck for us,” grumbled Frank, 
his eyes on the advancing Indians. “ What 
shall we do? ” 

It was plain to Jack and Running Elk 
that the Creeks had used their superior 
knowledge of the country to their great 
advantage. They had seen the direction 
taken by the boys and knowing, very 
likely, the course they must take through 
the forest if they desired to make speed, 
the red men had cunningly thrown parties 
forward along various paths through the 
woods, short cuts known only to them- 
selves and the wild things, and so had 
managed to form a ring about them when 
they had least expected it. 

To stand at the top of the grassy knoll 
64 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

and see the Creeks advance upon all sides 
was an experience the like of which Frank 
Lawrence had never undergone before. 
The sun glanced upon the oily bronze 
skins of the braves, their eagle and heron 
plumes nodded in the breeze, their buck- 
skin leggings and quilled and beaded orna- 
ments were interesting and picturesque. 
But Frank knew that there was something 
more than show in the force moving so 
slowly, so surely toward them; he knew 
that if they were not checked, their pres- 
ence in such numbers meant almost certain 
death to him and his friends. 

“ Do you think they are in range ?” 
asked he, looking at Jack. 

Young Davis swept the distant Creeks 
with an estimating glance. 

“ Not by fifty yards,” said he. “ And 
we'll give them twenty-five more than that, 
for we must not waste any ammunition.” 

But Jack did not give the Indians much 
attention at the moment ; as soon as he had 
65 


ON THE BORDER 


answered Frank's question, he turned to a 
place at the top of the knoll which had 
caught his eye a few moments before. This 
was a bowl-like depression, possibly fifteen 
yards across and some four feet in depth. 
The young Tennesseean leaped into this, 
and walked about, trying it at various 
places for a view of the sloping sides of 
the knoll. 

“ Just the thing," cried he, excitedly. 
“ Couldn't have been better placed if it 
had been made for the occasion." 

Catching Jack’s idea, the others also 
sprang into the depression. 

“ Bully I " exclaimed Frank. “ It's quite 
a fort." 

“ Made for fort," stated Running Elk, 
whose searching glance had been going 
about. “ Long time ago." 

At once the four horses were driven into 
the bowl, and made to lie down in the 
center ; then the defenders gave their at- 
tention to the oncoming foe. 

66 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

The Creeks had come on slowly ; it was 
evident that they felt sure of their prey 
and so were in no great hurry to close in. 
At the head of the band advancing from 
the direction of the forest was a tall, evil 
looking brave carrying a long tufted spear ; 
he seemed to exult in the prospect of bring- 
ing death to the white face, and he danced 
fantastically and flourished the spear. 

“ They are about in range now,” said 
Jack Davis, as he threw his long rifle for- 
ward. “ But hold your fire, Frank, until I 
have a try.” The piece went to his shoulder, 
the barrel resting upon the edge of the 
hollow. “ That fellow doing the dancing 
seems to be mighty pleased,” added the 
young borderer, grimly. “So I just think 
I’ll try to make him laugh on the other side 
of his mouth.” 

The long tube of the rifle held steadily 
upon the exultant savage for an instant; 
then the weapon cracked ; the tufted spear 
was flung high in the air, as the Creek's 
67 


ON THE BORDER 


arms went up ; and with a yell he dropped 
prone upon the sward. 

A chorus of yells followed this ; and 
while they were still sounding, Frank’s 
piece spoke clearly and spitefully ; a warrior 
in advance of his fellows, upon the opposite 
side, screeched his death note and fell to 
the earth. 

At once the bands to which the fallen 
braves had belonged scattered and fell 
back. They were still out of bow shot ; a 
few rifles sounded from among them, but 
the pieces were of obsolete pattern and poor 
range, so the bullets did no harm. How- 
ever, the parties upon the two other sides 
had sustained no loss ; and so they came on 
with a speed greatly increased by the yells 
and shots. 

With cool, practiced hands, the two young 
riflemen rammed home fresh charges of 
powder and ball ; Frank sprang to one side 
and Jack to another. 

“ Sight ’em carefully,” admonished Jack, 
68 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ and don’t let go until you’re sure of bring- 
ing down your Injun.” 

Again the long weapons cracked, one 
after the other, and two more Creeks fell 
with wide flung arms and yells of pain. 
And that was not all. The youthful 
Cherokee had been impatiently waiting a 
chance to bring his bow into the conflict ; 
the chance had now come. So he rose up 
beside Frank and the bowstring sang 
shrilly. The feathered shaft whistled 
through the air and found its mark ; then 
before the stricken brave had sunk to the 
ground, the pantherish speed of Running 
Elk had carried him across the little fort ; 
upon the opposite side, the one covered by 
Jack, the bowstring sounded again, and 
another warrior fell, transfixed through the 
shoulder. 

With four more of their number down, 
the Creeks let fly a perfect rain of arrows ; 
their rifles rang out in a scattered volley, 
and they came on vengefully. But the 
69 


ON THE BORDER 


ready bow of the Cherokee continued to 
twang ; the rifles of the two young marks- 
men were reloaded and again laid a brace 
of warriors low. This was too much for the 
Creeks; all their ideas of warfare, which 
was to fight from cover, were against this 
method of attack. They were in an open 
position and their enemies were out of 
sight ; it looked like death to advance, so 
promptly, with the last shots of the two 
rifles, they broke and fled out of range. 

“ They don't seem to have much appetite 
for lead," said Jack, as he cleaned out his 
rifle barrel with a bit of cloth, and proceeded 
to reload. 

Frank duplicated this performance ; then 
with a very sober countenance he said to 
his friend : 

“ I say, Jack, as that gang of savages 
were coming on shooting and yelling like 
all possessed, it struck me that we were in 
a rather desperate situation." 

Jack Davis pulled a wry face. 

70 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ I never want to see a worse one,” said 
he, quietly enough, but with a look in his 
eyes which Frank had never seen there 
before. 

“ What do you think of our chances of 
pulling out of it?” asked Frank, his gaze 
going to the Indian bands, clustered in 
council, well out of range. 

“ Well,” said Jack, “ there's a lot of them, 
and if they could get at us, they'd soon 
make an end of the thing.” 

“ It needs only a rush,” said Frank. “ If 
they had kept at it a few minutes more, it 
would have done for us.” 

“ But they didn't keep at it,” spoke Jack. 
“ And that is the only real thing that we 
can count on. It's not the Indian nature to 
stand up unprotected in the face of rifle fire. 
Their training is to hunt cover, to stalk 
their enemy, to creep up and jump on him 
when he's not looking for it. One-quarter 
as many white men would have taken this 
knoll at the first rush, seeing that there are 
7i 


ON THE BORDER 


only three to defend it. But Injuns are 
different.” He pointed with one out- 
stretched arm toward the discomfited sav- 
ages. “ They have the worst of it and 
they know it. ItTl surprise me a good deal 
if they pull themselves together enough to 
make another attack.” 

“ What ! ” Frank Lawrence looked at 
his friend in surprise. “ Do you mean to 
say there is any chance of their giving up 
the attempt — of letting us escape ? ” 

But Jack shook his head. 

“ No,” he said, gravely, “ not quite that. 
But as there is no cover for the redskins on 
the sides of this knoll, no trees, no rocks, 
no stumps or anything like that, they might 
wait for a kind of cover that’s to be found 
anywhere.” 

“ What’s that ? ” asked Frank. 

“ Darkness.” 

The young Virginian felt a cold, creeping 
shudder run down his back. His imagina- 
tion pictured the darkness of night falling 
72 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

over this lone place ; its stillness, its omi- 
nous, brooding depths. He seemed to feel 
the presence of the Creeks as they crept 
through the blackness, slowly and with the 
soft padded tread of panthers. No superi- 
ority of rifle fire, no vigilance, no courage 
would serve under such conditions ; it would 
mean only one thing — massacre. 

“ If they wait for night and attack us in 
the dark,” asked Frank, “ what can we 
do?” 

“ There is only one thing to do in such a 
case,” said the young borderer. “ As soon 
as darkness settles we must get away from 
here as best we can. We must not wait for 
them to spring upon us ; we’ll strike a blow 
at them, and be away in the darkness.” 

“ Ugh ! ” said Running Elk, with ap- 
proval. But that he did not favor every 
aspect of the proposition was shown when 
he added, “ Creep away like snakes — no 
noise — no shots. Heap best.” 

“ Right,” agreed Jack, with a nod. “ If 
73 


ON THE BORDER 


it can be done that way, it’ll be best. How- 
ever, when the time comes, we shall see.” 

Minute by minute went by ; then an 
hour passed, but still the Creeks did not 
renew the attack. 

“ They don’t seem to be in any hurry 
about it, at any rate,” said Frank. All three 
of the youths were leaning over the edge 
of the depression looking along the slope at 
the Indians in the distance. 

“ No,” said Jack. “ A half dozen, or so, 
in killed and wounded is a staggerer to 
them. They’ll not budge before night, 
you’ll see that.” 

After a time they saw the savages sub- 
side and go into camp ; however, each band 
kept its place; the ring about the knoll 
was preserved ; and red skinned sentinels 
were observed here and there, their keen 
eyes fixed upon the apex where the boys lay. 

“ There’ll not be much that’ll escape 
them,” said Jack. “ Injuns have as much 
patience as a hill-cat at a water hole.” 

74 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

The afternoon wore away ; then the sun 
began to lower behind the range of waving 
tree tops and the long shadows began to 
trail upon the slopes of the knoll. But the 
Creeks made no sign ; craftily they assumed 
carelessness, lolling about in groups, their 
horses picketed at some little distances. 

“They think to fool us,” said Jack. 
“ It's their idea not to stir until their move- 
ments are covered by darkness ; and in that 
way, so they imagine, they’ll lure us into 
thinking they are not going to move at all.” 

Slowly the shadows thickened ; twilight 
passed and night settled upon the wilds. 
There were countless stars in the sky ; but 
they seemed very far off and their glimmer- 
ing cast no light; the moon would not 
show itself for some hours. 

“Now!” said Jack Davis. “If we are 
going to make the attempt, now is the 
time. Are you willing, Frank ? ” 

“ I’ll follow right after you wherever 
you go,” replied the young Virginian. 

75 


ON THE BORDER 


“ Get away now, or Creek take ’um 
scalp,” said Running Elk. 

They got their horses to their feet and 
out of the hollow ; Jack had laid his plan 
before night settled, and he knew what he 
wanted to do. 

“ Right after me, one at a time,” said he. 
“ Lead your horses, and when you feel me 
stop, do the same.” 

Down the slope of the knoll went the three, 
in Indian file ; ahead of them all was dusk ; 
around them the silence settled like death. 

Half-way down, Jack paused ; the others 
did likewise, as directed, the horses hud- 
dling together for companionship. Frank 
was about to whisper a question as to why 
they had halted, but Jack stopped him at 
the first syllable. Then the young Vir- 
ginian became aware of a movement in the 
darkness near to them — the soft, steady for- 
ward movement of some low lying mass. 
With a thrill he realized what it meant ; 
the Indians were advancing to the attack. 

76 


CHAPTER VI 


SIGHTING THE ENEMY 

Like the slow lapping of black water 
the bands of creeping Indians ebbed for- 
ward. Frank Lawrence held his rifle ready 
to fire at the word ; and as he stood wait- 
ing, he wondered why the command was 
not given. 

But Jack Davis was observant ; he had 
planned the direction of their attempt with 
an eye to probabilities ; and what he had 
figured upon happening came about in due 
course. Upon this side of the knoll, but 
some distance from it, there was a shallow 
ravine ; when the Creeks on this side ad- 
vanced to the attack earlier in the day, 
they split their forces at this ravine and 
came on in two separate bodies. The boy 
took a desperate chance upon the same 
77 


ON THE BORDER 


thing’s happening in the darkness, and so 
had led the way, with the ravine directly 
ahead. 

Slowly the creeping redskins moved for- 
ward up the knoll ; they passed within a 
dozen yards upon either side of the crouch- 
ing group and continued unaware of the 
situation. A minute passed, then another 
— and when Frank had finally despaired, 
in the suspense, of Jack’s ever giving the 
word to go on, it came. Cautiously they 
urged their animals on down the slope ; 
they were now behind the Creeks ; ahead 
was the whole wide wilderness. A hundred 
yards or more from the spot where the 
savages passed them on the hillside, Jack 
whispered : 

“ Mount ! But go slowly.” 

They clambered into the saddle; Run- 
ning Elk, who had clung to the packhorse 
during all, kept the faithful beast beside 
his own horse as they rode along. After 
having gone something less than a mile 
78 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

they heard a yell, faint, but high pitched 
and exultant, from the distance ; rifles 
cracked and a flare of light lit the sky. 

“They’ve reached the summit of the 
knoll,” spoke Jack. “ And they’ve let 
drive with everything they had.” 

After the scattering of shots there was a 
short pause ; a murmur, dull and sustained, 
came from the direction of their late fort ; 
then, as though the Indians had just real- 
ized the escape of their intended victims, 
a screech of rage, hate and disappointment 
swept the still night with shuddering in- 
tensity. 

“ I’m as well satisfied that we didn’t fall 
into the hands of those gentlemen,” ob- 
served Frank, as they rode away at a gallop. 
“ I don’t think they’d stop at much.” 

“ The Creeks are not the merciful kind,” 
said Jack. “ And they seldom take prison- 
ers.” 

“ Creek burn and scalp,” stated Running 
Elk, calmly. “ Him no good.” 

79 


ON THE BORDER 


They rode all that night in order to put as 
much distance between them and the savage 
bands as possible ; in the morning they had 
breakfast, saw to their horses and rested for 
a few hours ; then they were off again. 

During that day they came upon innum- 
erable Indian signs ; in the course of the 
next they sighted a small party of Creeks 
headed through the forest, and toward 
evening they all but stumbled upon a large 
encampment. 

“ It looks as though they were gathering 
for trouble,” said Frank. “ The woods are 
alive with them.” 

“ Like as not runners have been sent out 
to the different villages that the Prophet is 
here,” said Jack. “ And, of course, they 
are all anxious to see him and hear his 
medicine.” 

“ Much war,” said Running Elk, as they 
made away from the vicinity of the savage 
camp. “ Creeks and Shawnee burn block- 
house and white face tepees.” 

80 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ Do you think they’ll start soon?” 
asked Jack. 

“ No.” The Cherokee hunter shook his 
head. “ Not yet. After the snow’s gone 
from hills. Tribes all join together. Heap 
fight.” 

“ That sounds like the facts,” nodded the 
young borderer to Frank. “ It’ll take some 
time for Tecumseh to get the tribes together 
for the blow — if he can do it at all.” 

“ Next spring, then, a big outbreak may 
be expected ? ” said Frank. 

“ Maybe not so soon. But it will come, 
sooner or later, mark my words. The 
Injuns are about ripe for it.” 

That night they were unable to light a 
fire because of the closeness of the Indian 
bands ; and the greater part of the next 
day they were forced to remain in hiding 
because of the parties of savages constantly 
encountered. This went on for some days ; 
they were unable to cook their food the 
greater part of the time, and had little real 
81 


ON THE BORDER 


rest, for it was necessary to guard against 
surprise every moment. 

After about a week of this sort of thing, 
Jack, one morning, said to Frank : 

“ It doesn’t seem as though we were going 
to locate your father’s land grant in a hurry, 
does it? ” 

Frank shook his head. 

“ No,” said he. “ We’ll never be able to 
move in that direction now. It must be 
alive with Indians.” 

“ Too bad,” said Jack. “ And we were 
just on the edge of it, too.” 

“ What do you think we’d better do ? ” 
asked Frank. 

“ Well, we can’t go back to Tennessee,” 
replied the young borderer. “ That would 
be as dangerous as trying to locate the land 
marked on your chart. About the only 
thing I can see for the present, at least, is 
to make our way south to Mobile, and halt 
there for a while until this excitement 
among the redskins dies out.” 

82 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ Good,” said Frank. And the Cherokee 
hunter grunted his approval. 

So from that time on their attempt was 
not in the direction of Tallapoosa, but 
toward the fort which stood overlooking 
the bay at Mobile. 

This they searched after a tremendous 
effort through the wild country ; and when 
they appeared at the stockade, they were 
stared at in amazement. 

“ Well, youngsters,” greeted a bluff old 
officer, who seemed to be in command, 
“ where did you come from ? ” And when 
they told him, and related some of their 
experiences, he and the group of soldiers 
and frontiersmen who had grouped about 
opened their eyes still wider. 

“ Well,” said the commandant, shaking 
his head, “ you've had great good fortune, 
lads. The country you've just come out of 
must be as thick with excited Injuns as a 
hive is with bees. I wouldn't venture in 
there with less than five hundred men.” 

83 


ON THE BORDER 

Mobile and the section thereabouts was 
fairly well defended, and had little to fear 
from an uprising of the Indians alone. 

“ But the British are getting active,” the 
boys were told ; “ they are sending in 
supplies to the redskins ; and the Spaniards 
are helping them.” 

This condition of affairs held during the 
fall ; the boys saw the winter come and 
spring show itself in its thousands of green 
shoots and blooms, and still they were 
forced to remain at Mobile. 

The whole Indian country was surcharged 
with the madness excited in the people by 
the religious frenzies of the Prophet, who 
in turn was directed by the shrewd mind of 
Tecumseh. But some of the tribes through 
whose country he passed, like the Cherokees, 
the Choctaws and Chickasaws, turned a 
deaf ear to his plotting, for they had the 
wisdom to see that his plans could not 
succeed. But the others gave the Shawnees 
their attention, for with England’s aid they 
84 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

felt that they could finally overthrow the 
other white men. 

During the fall while the boys were safe 
in Mobile, the news came that Tecumseh 
and the Prophet had visited Toockabatcha, 
the great village of the Creeks. There were 
fully five thousand warriors of that nation 
assembled in the town ; the Shawnee chief 
and the magician, painted and bedecked 
with all the trappings of savage custom, 
made their last great appeal. The British 
officers had told the Prophet that a comet 
was to appear — giving him the exact time ; 
and the wily savage now used this informa- 
tion to good advantage. Rising before the 
assembled Creeks in all the impressiveness 
of paint and ornaments, he proclaimed : 

“ The Great Spirit will give you a sign. 
And when that sign comes, the Muscogee 
must take the war-path. You will see the 
arm of Tecumseh, the great chief, in the 
sky. It will be of fire and will be held out 
to destroy the paleface.” 

85 


ON THE BORDER 


This prediction made a great impression 
upon the superstitious Creeks. A saying 
of Tecumseh, which that leader had prob- 
ably not meant to be taken literally, also 
caused great excitement among the savages. 
A Creek chief known to the white settlers of 
Alabama as “ Big Warrior ” had refused to 
believe that the Great Spirit had sent 
Tecumseh among them. With upraised 
hand the Shawnee had said to him : 

“ You do not believe me, chief of the 
Muscogees ; you think I speak with a 
crooked tongue. But you shall believe. 
When I leave your country I will go to 
Detroit ; when I reach there I will stamp 
my foot upon the earth ; and the wigwams 
of this village will tremble.” 

Unquestionably what Tecumseh meant 
was that the effects of the war which would 
begin upon his reaching the region of the 
Great Lakes would be felt as far as Toocka- 
batcha ; nevertheless a strange thing is said 
to have happened. About the time in 
86 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

which he must have reached Detroit, a 
sharp shock of earthquake shook almost 
the whole of the Creek country ; and the 
wigwams of Toockabatcha did, indeed, reel 
and tremble. Instantly the Indians re- 
called the Shawnee’s words and were filled 
with fear. 

“ Tecumseh has reached Detroit ! ” they 
cried. “ He has struck the earth with his 
foot and it has trembled/’ 

This was in December, 1812, and the en- 
tire Gulf region was affected by this earth 
tremor. At about the same time the pre- 
dicted comet appeared in the sky ; and the 
credulity of the Creeks at once saw in it 
the fiery arm of Tecumseh. 

“ War with the white man ! ” ran through 
the nation of the Muscogee. “ War ! The 
Great Spirit has commanded it ! ” 

Through the remainder of the winter and 
the next spring, clashes took place between 
the military and the Indians, who were pre- 
paring for the war. Settlers were attacked, 
87 


ON THE BORDER 


hunters were driven from their trapping 
grounds. At Burnt Corn, a number of 
whites and half-breeds were assembled for 
mutual protection ; the Creeks attacked, de- 
feated and scattered them. Farms were 
abandoned, the settlers flocking to the 
numerous stockades to await the expected 
onslaught. 

Having remained idle, so far as their mis- 
sion was concerned, through the fall, the 
winter and the spring, Jack and Frank, to- 
gether with Running Elk, made up their 
minds that they could not afford to waste 
any more time. So, in the month of July, 
in spite of the protests of the friends they 
had made at Mobile, they took horse and 
rode into the wilderness once more. 

“ It’s a risk,” admitted Jack to his com- 
rades, “ but, then, we can’t wait forever.” 

“ I’d rather face the Creeks than the 
clock,” stated Frank. “ They were the 
longest hours I ever spent toward the last.” 

As for the young Cherokee hunter, he 
88 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

seemed greatly pleased with the venture ; 
the danger, instead of being dreaded in his 
case, was welcomed. 

“ Brave must fight,” said he, elatedly. 
“ Not like squaw or papoose.” 

“ Well, Fd just as leave dodge any fight- 
ing at the odds we'll have to give,” said 
Jack, drily. “ But,” and there was a hope- 
ful note in his voice, “ maybe we'll not be 
molested much. You see,” to Frank, “ that 
section of the Alabama River where the 
triple oaks stand has no white settlers ; and 
the Indians at this time are mustering in 
the neighborhoods they mean to attack. 
We might go through the entire grant which 
you're looking for and not see a single red- 
skin.” 

“ I hope that turns out the case,” re- 
marked Frank, though it was plain he had 
no strong expectations of the affair's proving 
so. “ But let us keep a good lookout, just 
the same. I haven't had but a few brushes 
with the Creeks, but I know they have a 
89 


ON THE BORDER 


habit of turning up just at the time you’re 
not expecting them.” 

But it so happened Jack Davis’ judg- 
ment of the conditions of affairs along that 
section of the river was quite correct. At 
most times it would have been the region in 
which to find the Creeks the thickest ; but, 
save for a few villages occupied by old men-, 
and women and children, there were no 
braves to be seen. Signs were everywhere of 
parties having passed that way ; they came 
upon the blackened remains of a half hun- 
dred camp-fires ; but not a single eagle 
feather was visible anywhere about ; not a 
bow twanged, not a war cry sounded. 

Jack Davis was greatly interested in the 
movements of the parties who had camped 
on and moved across their track. 

“ Every one of them is headed for the 
settlements,” said he. “ There must be 
thousands of them.” 

However, they knew that the uprising 
was expected, and felt that the military au- 
90 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

thorities and backwoodsmen were alert ; so 
they concerned themselves with the object 
of their expedition alone. The triple oaks 
were once more sighted ; unmolested this 
time, they studied the chart upon the deer- 
skin scroll ; one by one they located the 
landmarks set down, blazed trees with their 
hatchets and explored. The result of five 
days' work was that the old grant was 
shown to be a splendidly located one, hav- 
ing every natural advantage. 

“ It's worth thousands," said Jack, who 
had a fairly keen eye for such things. “ If 
the Injuns are ever brought to see things in 
the right light, your father has a fortune 
here." 

With this fact greatly comforting him, 
Frank was willing to turn once more 
toward the settlements ; so after one night 
more in the river bank camp, they took to 
the saddle and headed for the Tennessee 
line. After the first day, unmistakable 
signs of Indians compelled them to change 
9i 


ON THE BORDER 


their course somewhat ; the twilight of the 
second day found them in the forest amid a 
perfect maze of fresh trails. 

“ They seem to be all around us,” said 
Jack, as they brought up at last, and sat 
their horses looking about them. 

And he was right ; for as the twilight 
deepened into dusk, and dusk into night, 
they saw the red twinkle of Creek camp- 
fires on every hand. 


92 


CHAPTER VII 


THE ONSLAUGHT AT FORT MIMS 

For a time the two white boys and the 
young Cherokee hunter gazed in silence at 
the sparkle of the Creek camp-fires ; the 
woods seemed studded with them ; hundreds 
of savages must have been camped within a 
circle of a half mile. 

“ It's almost a miracle how we got into 
the midst of them like this without seeing 
any of them, or their seeing us,” said Frank 
Lawrence. 

“ We'd been traveling very quietly,” 
said Jack. “ I suppose that accounts for it. 
But,” and he gazed around at the gleaming 
sparks of red light among the trees, “ we 
must get out of this, and before daylight. 
If we don't, we'll be caught as sure as the 
sun rises.” 


93 


ON THE BORDER 


“ No get away in morning,” said Run- 
ning Elk. “ Best go now. Too many war- 
riors to fight.” 

In the direction from which they came 
the camp-fires of the Indians were fewer ; so 
the boys mounted once more and headed in 
that direction, aiming at a point between 
two of them which were farthest apart and 
therefore seemed to afford the best way out. 

There followed what they would all re- 
member as one of the most perilous half 
hours of their lives ; but, at length, they 
were out of the region of the camps and 
were making good speed away in the dark- 
ness. 

“Once or twice I thought sure that a 
sentinel would call to us,” said Frank. 

“We were so close to them that they 
couldn’t help thinking we were members 
ofitheir own party,” said Jack, “ and as they 
couldn’t make us out in the dark we had a 
few chances in our favor.” 

“ Creek heap much sleep on watch,” 
94 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

charged Running Elk, with contempt. 
“ No good ! ” 

The three rode all night ; and as morn- 
ing dawned, they saw signs of the white 
man's hand all about them. 

“ Hello 1 ” cried Frank, “ we're closer to 
the settlements than I thought." 

“ Unless I'm wrong by a good deal," said 
Jack, “ we're not far from Fort Mims." 

“ Fort there," said the Cherokee, point- 
ing toward a distant strip of woodland. 
“ Other side of trees." 

They did not go into camp, though tired 
by their night in the saddle ; but cheerily 
rode toward the fort, feeling that a good 
breakfast awaited them. An hour's ride 
brought them in sight of the fort, which 
stood on Lake Tensaw. 

Fort Mims was built and occupied by a 
half-breed named Samuel Mims, who had 
lived there in the wilderness many years. 
His house was a stout one of logs, and was 
surrounded by a stockade, pierced by loop- 
95 


ON THE BORDER 

holes for rifle fire in case of attack. The 
place was only a little distance from the 
lake ; all about it was forest, marsh and 
ravines. A large gate was let into the 
stockade at the north and there was an- 
other at the south. 

When the Creeks began their depreda- 
tions on the border, the settlers of that 
section had flocked to Fort Mims. At this 
time there were some seventy-five men, 
mostly white, but some also of mixed blood, 
gathered behind the shelter of the stockade ; 
and with these were a great number of 
women and children. 

A month before, General Claiborne, who 
was in command of the United States forces 
in Alabama, dispatched Major Beasley and 
one hundred and seventy infantry to this 
place. Claiborne recognized the seriousness 
of the situation and thought it best to be 
prepared. When Beasley reached Fort 
Mims he found an officer and about a score 
of soldiers already there; and in taking 
96 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

charge, proceeded to organize the settlers into 
a fighting force, of which a young half-breed 
named Dixon Bailey was made captain. 

A week or so after this force was located 
at the fort, General Claiborne paid a visit 
to the place ; seeing with a practiced mili- 
tary eye the weakness of its defense, he 
urged the strengthening of the stockade, 
and the completing of a blockhouse which 
had been started some years before, but 
never finished. 

Major Beasley was a man of unques- 
tioned courage ; but he was a poor officer. 
Being of a sanguine, optimistic nature, and 
with little imagination, he belittled the 
urgency of the occasion. He had a con- 
tempt for the warlike qualities of the red 
men, and did not think it worth while to 
erect the defenses recommended by the 
general. There were six hundred people 
gathered in the enclosure ; and with half 
of these fighting men, he ridiculed the idea 
of danger. 


97 


ON THE BORDER 


The boys stood in a fringe of woods. 
From there they sighted the fort, and saw 
one of the gates standing wide. 

“ And there is no guard / 7 said the ob- 
servant Jack Davis. “ That looks like a 
foolish thing to do in a time like this . 77 

The boys were about to ride forward 
when Running Elk hurriedly, and in a 
low tone, said : 

“ No go ! Creek braves out there ! 77 

Drawing in their mounts, Jack and 
Frank looked keenly about ; sure enough, 
from above the high grass at a point indi- 
cated by the young Cherokee, they saw the 
nodding eagle plumes of a half score savages. 

“ And watching the fort , 77 whispered 
Frank. 

“ Creek make ring around fort , 77 said 
Running Elk. 

“ It 7 s true ! 77 said Jack, startled, his 
roving glance taking in the indications. 
“ They’ve got it surrounded, and are tight- 
ening the circle all the time . 77 

98 



THEY SIGHTED THE FORT 



ON THE BORDER 


“ We must warn the people in the fort,” 
said Frank. “ With that gate open they 
are in danger.” 

“ To stir a step in their direction at this 
time,” said Jack Davis, “ would be to run 
into sure death. Surely, of all the people 
who are inside there at this time, some one 
is on the lookout ; and they will see the 
redskins before it is too late.” 

Knowing that it would be foolhardy to 
attempt anything just then, Jack rode his 
horse into a deep ravine, followed by the 
others ; here they dismounted, and, con- 
cealed by a dense growth of trees and 
underbrush, they crawled up the sides of 
the ravine and watched the situation with 
the most acute interest. 

Jack had said that surely out of all the 
people inside the stockade at Fort Mims 
some one would be on the lookout. This 
was naturally to be expected — it was the 
very least that a military officer could do 
in the heart of a hostile country. Yet it 
ioo 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

was a thing that Major Beasley had not 
done. But to leave the stockade gate 
sprawling open and the fort unguarded was 
not the least of this officer’s offenses. A 
day or two before a couple of negroes, who 
had been sent out to watch some cattle at 
pasture, had rushed in and reported signs 
of Indians. A party had been sent out, 
under an officer, to scout about the country ; 
but they had been very perfunctory in the 
performance of this grave duty, and re- 
turned saying that no Indians were in the 
neighborhood, and neither had they seen 
any signs of them. 

At this report the negroes were lashed, 
in spite of their protestations, and things 
went on in their usual careless spirit. 

For several hours the boys watched from 
the ravine. The advance of the circling 
savages had stopped ; apparently they were 
waiting some sort of signal. Inside the 
stockade the women and military cooks 
were preparing the midday meal ; the 

IOI 


ON THE BORDER 


soldiers were lounging about, the children 
were romping in the shade of the walls. 
Another short space of time, and then the 
drum beat the mess call, telling the soldiers 
that their food was ready. 

Apparently this was the signal. The 
Creeks arose from out the grass, from be- 
hind stumps, from out of hollows. Like 
magic, hundreds of them, smeared hid- 
eously with war paint, armed with scalping 
knife and tomahawk, with rifle and war 
club, bounded silently across the level space 
between them and the fort. 

Major Beasley was the first of the de- 
fenders to see them. 

“ Injuns !” he cried as he darted toward 
the heavy gate. The swift-footed Creeks 
were also plunging toward this point ; see- 
ing that they were discovered, they cast 
silence aside and the air was filled with the 
dreaded war-whoop. 

Major Beasley reached the gate and threw 
himself against it with desperate strength. 

102 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

But the savages were too swift ; they gained 
the gateway and before the cumbersome 
bar could fall they had thrust the gate 
back, and the ill-fated commander fell 
before their tomahawks. 

Soldiers and settlers both had sprung for 
their rifles at the first shout of Beasley. 
But before they could form for any sort of 
concentrated defense the Creeks poured 
through the wide open gate like the waters 
of an angry sea. 

Seeing that there was no hope of with- 
standing the Indians at that point, the de- 
fenders, or what remained of them after this 
first terrible onslaught, fell back with the 
women and children behind a second line 
of wall. Here the gate was closed, and 
lining the wall with deadly rifles the whites 
began a gallant defense. 

The leader of the settlers now took 
command ; and no more gallant fellow 
than this half-breed ever lived. He kept 
his men to their frightful task with the 
103 


ON THE BORDER 


.most desperate resolution. So bitter was 
the defense of the settlers and soldiers that 
the Indians, a great number of them dead 
under the walls, slackened in their attack. 
With what booty they could lay hands on 
they fell back before the terrible rifles. 

But their leader was another half-breed, 
Weatherford, the dreaded “ Red Warrior ” 
of the Creeks. Upon the back of a great 
charger, garbed in all the barbaric splendor 
of a savage chief, he dashed among his 
scattering bands. His great voice lifted 
like a trumpet, burning them with his 
scorn. 

“ Are the Muscogees men, or children ? ” 
he cried. “ Have they the hearts of 
warriors, or of rabbits? You have asked to 
be led against the foe ; he is before you. 
Shall your children say their fathers turned 
their backs upon the paleface? Or will 
you be able to show by the scalps upon your 
lodge pole that when your chief called you 
braves he did not lie? ” 

104 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Lashed to fury by the scorn of the Red 
Warrior, the Creeks returned to the assault. 
Burning arrows were discharged, and soon 
the buildings behind the second defense 
were destroyed. The gates were broken 
in ; the settlers now fought penned up in 
houses which were burning over their 
heads. Soon all were dead save a party 
which had closed itself up in a bastion at 
the north of the fort ; these fought doggedly 
under the courageous direction of their 
captain, Dixon Bailey. But nothing could 
withstand the overwhelming strength of 
the Indians ; they stormed the bastion, 
and in spite of the protests and commands 
of Weatherford, began their dreadful work 
of death once more. 

In a frenzy of strength some of the 
troopers broke apart the stakes which 
formed the outer wall of the bastion. About 
a half score escaped by this means, among 
them being the gallant Dixon Bailey. But 
it was not the fate of this fine fellow to 
105 


ON THE BORDER 


escape with his life ; he was bleeding from 
a half dozen wounds and died a few hundred 
yards from the doomed fort. 

Broken and breathless, the remainder of 
the little party ran on ; a band of Creeks 
had noted their escape and were in swift 
pursuit ; the whites had about given up 
hope when they heard a loud “ Hello ” far 
ahead. 

Amazed, they saw in a fringe of woods 
two white boys and a friendly Indian, well 
mounted — and holding a number of Indian 
ponies by their bridles. 

“ This way,” shouted one of the lads, a 
bronzed, bold-faced fellow. “ We have 
mounts for you all, borrowed from the 
Creeks. Quick now ! ” 

And while the fight-worn men were 
straining their pounding hearts for just a 
little more speed, Jack and Frank threw up 
their long rifles ; like whips they cracked 
and two bronzed warriors tumbled forward. 
Then Running Elk's bow sang its song of 
106 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

death and a third went to join his com- 
rades. 

While the fugitives clambered upon the 
backs of the horses, the lads finished re- 
loading. Again the pieces cracked and 
once more the great Cherokee bow twanged. 
Amid the death yells of the fallen braves 
and the ruins of Fort Mims blazing behind 
them, the fugitives, with Jack and Frank 
and Running Elk riding behind as a rear 
guard, dashed away with the news toward 
the settlements. 


107 


CHAPTER VIII 


OLD HICKORY APPEARS 

The news of the deed of blood at Fort 
Mims swept along the border like fire ; swift 
riders carried it to the hamlets of Georgia 
and Tennessee ; and in the wake of the 
tidings went up a cry of vengeance. 

Nowhere did the dreadful story have 
more effect than in West Tennessee. Gov- 
ernor Blount at once called for three thou- 
sand volunteers to move against the Creeks, 
and the hardy backwoodsmen flocked from 
all points to enlist. 

Frank Lawrence, Jack Davis and the 
young Cherokee hunter, Running Elk, had 
ridden through the perils of the hostile In- 
dian country and forced their way north by 
sheer pluck after leaving the fugitives of 
Fort Mims at a stockade some dozen miles 
108 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

away and making sure that the troops at 
Fort Stoddart had been notified. And now, 
when the borderers were pouring in to en- 
list in the force which was to strike a blow 
against the Creeks, these three young men 
were in the thick of the movement. 

“ A friend of my father, a lawyer named 
Andrew Jackson, is leader of the state mili- 
tia,” said Jack. “ Suppose we go see him ; 
he’ll tell us what’s best to do.” 

But first they consulted the elder Davis, 
a stout, hardy man who had, like the other 
farmers, rode into the city to see what was 
to be done. He shook his head when Jack 
told him of their idea. 

“ Of course,” said he, “ you lads ought to 
volunteer. It’s the duty of every youngster 
on the border to do so. But as for Andy 
Jackson’s doing anything for you, I don’t 
think he’ll be able.” 

“Why, how’s that?” asked Jack, sur- 
prised. “ He’s still general of the militia, 
isn’t he?” 


109 


ON THE BORDER 


“ Yes,” replied the farmer, “ but just now 
he's ill ; in bed with the doctors attending 
him. A few weeks ago he engaged in a 
desperate personal affray with the Bentons, 
and was shot in the shoulder. And I hear 
the wound is a bad one, and he's not mend- 
ing very fast.” 

However, the lads, after some consulta- 
tion with Mr. Davis, made up their minds 
that it would be a good idea to go on to 
Nashville anyway. 

“ It may be,” admitted Mr. Davis, “ that 
he's taken a turn for the better since I heard 
from him. News travels slowly, you know.” 

Next day Jack and Frank, Running Elk 
having departed for a visit to the lodges of 
his people, took horse and rode to Nashville, 
and went at once to General Jackson’s house. 
They found him upon a sunny porch in the 
midst of a committee which had been ap- 
pointed to offer him the command of the 
volunteers. He was a long thin man with 
large bones and a frame of great natural 
no 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

strength. His face was long and gaunt at 
the best of times, but just now it was hag- 
gard from the effects of his wound, and 
bloodless in color. He lay back in a big 
chair supported by pillows, and talked to 
the committee in a low voice. 

Frank Lawrence gave one look at the 
drawn, white face and gaunt frame and 
whispered to his friend : 

“ I say, do they really mean to offer this 
man command of an army ? He looks to 
be dying.” 

Jack nodded his head and answered in 
the same low voice : 

“ Maybe so. But that won't make much 
difference to the general. Anything he sets 
himself to do, he does ; and if he makes up 
his mind to lead the expedition against the 
Creeks, he'll do it, no matter what his con- 
dition is.” 

Frank, as they stood apart, waiting, 
looked with much interest at the sick man. 
He saw a great mop of stubborn hair stand- 
in 


ON THE BORDER 


ing straight up from his head ; he saw the 
powerful jaw and the thin nose of the war- 
rior. But above all he saw the eyes, fiery, 
indomitable, the eyes of one to whom death 
meant nothing, but to whom submission 
was unthinkable. 

Andrew Jackson was at this period about 
forty years of age. He was of Irish ances- 
try and had been born on the border of the 
southwest territory. He had been a lawyer, 
judge, storekeeper, farmer and United 
States Senator. At this time he was 
practicing law, farming his place, the 
Hermitage, and acting as general of the 
Tennessee militia. 

“ What authority have you to offer me 
the leadership of this body of men ? ” asked 
Jackson from the depths of his chair. 

“ The right of citizens of Tennessee, gath- 
ered in public conference,” said the spokes- 
man of the committee. “ We cannot wait 
for formal action by the state or national 
governments ; it might be fatal to do so. 

1 12 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Even now these red fiends may be gather- 
ing for a blow at our frontier. ,, 

The deep-set eyes of the sick man 
glowed ; apparently this was the sort of 
spirit of which he altogether approved. 

“ Right ! ” said he in a voice filled with 
sudden deep strength. “ To prepare quickly 
is the only way.” 

“And you will accept?” asked another 
of the committee, eagerly. 

“ My wound is bad,” said Jackson, “ and 
I shall be of less service than I should be 
otherwise. But, still, I will march. And 
if the general government will only keep 
hands off,” grimly, “ we shall in the end 
have peace in Israel.” 

After the committee, much elated by 
their success, had departed, Jack and 
Frank were brought to the notice of the 
general. 

“ Oh, yes,” said he, holding out one 
gaunt hand to Jack, “ I recall you. How 
is your father ? ” 

1 13 


ON THE BORDER 


“ Quite well.” Then presenting Frank, 
he added : “ This is my friend from Vir- 
ginia, Frank Lawrence.” 

The general shook the boy by the hand 
and had his black servant bring chairs. 
When they were seated, he looked at them 
smilingly. 

“ You both look as though you’d been 
through some hard service,” said he. 

“ We have,” replied Jack. “ A full year 
of it. And we’ve just returned.” 

They then related to Jackson, in as few 
words as possible, the story of their expe- 
dition to locate the land grant. The gen- 
eral listened to the harrowing tale of the 
assault upon Fort Mims with frowning 
brows. 

“ This is the work of Tecumseh and his 
brother, the wonder worker,” said he. 
“ And to repay it means that the Creek 
nation must feel the weight of the white 
man’s power. And they shall, if it’s in my 
power.” 


1 14 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Then Jack spoke of the errand that 
brought them to the Hermitage, and the 
general nodded approvingly. 

“ We'll need young men like you two, 
who know the country, to scout ahead of 
our force. If you volunteer, that shall be 
your work.” 

The two thanked the officer, and left 
quite buoyantly, riding to the Davis place 
next day, and there accepting the call for 
service against the savages. The order went 
out that the volunteers were to assemble at 
Fayetteville in October ; but before this 
time arrived the disturbing news came 
that the Indians were threatening Mad- 
ison, in the Mississippi territory, which 
then took in a large portion of the present 
state of Alabama. From his sick room 
Jackson sent forward Colonel Coffee, a 
huge fighting man, who was related to 
him by marriage. Coffee's command was 
but three hundred in number, and con- 
sisted of cavalry and mounted riflemen; 
ii5 


ON THE BORDER 


but these hardy woodsmen had no fear, 
and rode toward Huntsville, in the threat- 
ened district. 

On October 4th Jackson was not able to 
stand on his feet, much less mount a horse, 
and so was not able to join his command 
upon the day named. However, three days 
later, like a gaunt ghost, he rode into camp, 
his will alone keeping him in the saddle. 

Scarcely had he taken command when a 
rider from Coffee’s column dashed into the 
camp at Fayetteville with a dispatch saying 
that the colonel’s small command was in 
danger of attack by a huge force of Indians. 
Camp was broken and the Tennesseeans 
moved forward. In spite of the fact that 
they had a disabled commander they 
marched thirty-two miles that day ; the 
end of it found the force near Huntsville, 
and the news then came that Coffee’s danger 
was not as pressing as supposed, so Jackson 
at once went into camp. 

Next day he crossed the Tennessee River 
116 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

near Huntsville, and joined Coffee’s little 
force of horsemen. The first thing to be 
done now was to find a well located place 
to be used as a depot of supplies. Under 
the guidance of Jack Davis, who knew the 
country like a printed page, they moved up 
the river to Thompson’s Creek and laid out 
a work which the commander named Fort 
Deposit. 

While at Fort Deposit preparing for the 
plunge into the wilderness, the boys one 
night while reclining upon a blanket out- 
side General Jackson’s tent heard the com- 
mander and Colonel Coffee going over the 
plans for the campaign against the Creeks. 

“ Right here,” said General Jackson, as 
he lay weakly back upon a sort of couch of 
boughs covered by a bearskin, “ we have a 
depot at the most southerly point of the 
Tennessee River. All our supplies can be 
sent down to us in boats without trouble. 
The first thing to do is to open a military 
road through the forest and over the moun- 
117 


ON THE BORDER 


tains to the Coosa River, and there establish 
a second depot. The great idea is to create 
a permanent communication between East 
Tennessee and Mobile. Once we reach the 
Coosa that will be easy, as the Alabama River 
can be used for the remainder of the way.” 

“ But in opening this way you’ll en- 
counter many hostile Indians.” 

“ We’ll destroy all armed bands,” spoke 
the general. “ And not only the bands, 
but their villages as well.” 

At first the boating of the army’s supplies 
down the Tennessee River met with unfore- 
seen obstacles because of the inexperience 
of the contractors who had this most im- 
portant work in charge ; then the cutting 
of a road through the dense forests, the 
bridging of streams and the continuing the 
way over the Raccoon and Lookout Moun- 
tains to the Ten Islands of the Coosa was a 
grim labor for even these hardy borderers. 
However, on about the first of November 
they reached the Coosa ; and here another 
118 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

work was constructed, which was given the 
name of Fort Strother. 

Here there was more trouble and delay 
by the contractors ; but Jackson grasped the 
situation in his own ready hands, impressed 
all the horses and wagons in the settlements 
roundabout, and so the army’s requirements 
were much relieved. 

The military force, as it had progressed 
into the hostile country, had been joined at 
different points by small bands of Cherokees. 
These Indians had long been upon a friendly 
footing with the whites, and as they were 
the natural foes of the Creeks they readily 
consented to join with Jackson against that 
nation. By the time the fort upon the 
Coosa was completed the Cherokees num- 
bered some hundreds of young warriors, led 
by enterprising and warlike chiefs. On 
the second night at Fort Strother a fresh 
band of Cherokees came up, and both Jack 
Davis and Frank Lawrence were delighted 
to see Running Elk among them. 

119 


ON THE BORDER 


“ How ? ” said the young hunter, as he 
threw himself from his horse and shook 
hands with them, a wide smile upon his 
face. 

“ Good,” replied Frank. “ And you look 
quite fresh and lively yourself, Running 
Elk.” 

“ Glad to see you,” spoke Jack, who had 
a great regard for the young brave. “ That’s 
a good sized war party you’ve ridden in 
with.” 

“ Much want fight Creeks,” stated Run- 
ning Elk. “ Creek bad medicine. Make 
big war. All die like wolf.” 

The Creek town of Tallushatchee was no 
great distance from Fort Strother, and this 
last band of Cherokees, so it seemed, had 
passed quite close to it in the night. 

“ Heap Creek warriors at Tallushatchee,” 
said Running Elk to the two boys, after a 
time. “ Great dance. Council of warriors 
and chiefs. White chief must be careful.” 

As this seemed to be a piece of important 
120 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

information, Jack Davis went to the gen- 
eral’s tent and informed the sentry that he 
had some important news to communicate. 

“ The general will see you,” said the sen- 
try, a few moments later as he returned. 

Jack entered the tent. He found a num- 
ber of officers present; among them was 
Colonel Coffee, the giant leader of the cav- 
alry. The youth saluted General Jackson 
and upon being asked what he had to say, 
told of Running Elk’s story of the Creek 
village. When he had finished, Jackson’s 
eyes went to Coffee’s face. 

“ It’s just as you said, colonel,” said he. 
“ They are making ready an attack.” 

Coffee nodded, and spoke in a deep voice. 

“ They’ll attack us within a week,” said he. 

But General Jackson shook his head and 
replied, grimly : 

“ You are wrong in that, at least. We’ll 
not await an attack. Take one thousand 
men and strike at Tallushatchee as hard as 
you can.” 


121 


ON THE BORDER 


Coffee sprang alertly to his feet, and 
pulled his sword belt a hole tighter. 

“ Now ? ” he asked eagerly. 

“ Within an hour,” answered Jackson. 

The Creek town lay some thirteen miles 
to the east, across the Coosa ; and the ener- 
getic Coffee immediately began getting his 
men together, horse and foot, for the ad- 
vance. 

As the backwoodsmen and militia were 
eagerly responding and falling into line, the 
colonel turned to Jack. 

“ Do you know that country across the 
river, Davis ? ” he inquired. 

“ Very well,” said Jack. “ Fve hunted 
it many a time.” 

“ Then IT1 depend upon you to lead us 
by the best way,” said Colonel Coffee, “ and 
to give me some notion of the lay of the 
country in order that I may make my plans 
for this little job.” 

Before the force under the giant colonel 
forded the river, its commander had a very 
122 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

clear idea of the natural formations ; more- 
over, Jack and Frank, with Running Elk 
and a scouting party of young Cherokee 
braves, were riding ahead. 

“ Looks like a piece of sharp work,” said 
the young Virginian to his friend. 

“ Yes,” replied Jack. “ We'll reach Tal- 
lushatchee before morning ; and if the 
Creeks are in the frame of mind Running 
Elk reports, there will be a piece of fighting 
such as this border hasn't seen for many a 
day.” 


123 


CHAPTER IX 


THE BLOW AT TALLUSHATCHEE 

Some few miles from the Creek town 
Colonel Coffee brought his command to a 
halt. 

“ Houston,” said he, to a young ensign 
who sat his horse near by, “ take a few scouts 
and make a reconnaissance of the village. 
Find out, if you can, how many redskins 
there are.’ 7 

The ensign, who was Sam Houston, years 
afterward hero of San Jacinto, and presi- 
dent of the Texan republic, saluted and 
rode forward ; he signaled to Jack, Frank 
and Running Elk. 

“ Come on, boys,” said he, in the rough, 
hearty fashion for which he was noted in 
the little army of Tennessee. “ And you, 
too, Injun. There’s a little thing or two 
124 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

to be done before daylight grows too 
strong.” 

The four rode on together, while the cav- 
alry dismounted and, with the foot soldiers, 
lay upon their arms to await their return. 

“I don’t think the colonel’ll attack be- 
fore daylight, though, will he ? ” asked 
Frank. 

Young Houston laughed. 

“ I guess not,” said he. “ Coffee is a first 
class fighting man, and that means that 
he’s going to make sure about the odds — 
for or against him. If I were leading this 
crowd, I’d walk into that nest of redskins 
with every gun going and without asking 
a question.” 

The discipline of this hardy backwoods 
army was none of the strictest, and the line 
between officer and private was not very 
sharply drawn, so Frank was not at all 
backward in replying. 

“ But don’t forget, Houston, that Colonel 
Coffee has his men’s welfare to look to as 

125 


ON THE BORDER 


well as the Creeks to beat. Why run risks 
with other men’s lives when a little care 
and prudence will make it unnecessary ? ” 

Again young Houston laughed ; and 
there was a note of recklessness in it which 
seemed to rise above everything else. For 
this young man, almost boy, was one of the 
most fearless spirits of the border. The 
time was to come, though, when he was to 
look after the lives of his soldiers with even 
greater care than Colonel Coffee, when he 
was many years older, and responsibility 
had tamed his wild nature. 

“ I don’t think there would be more 
danger for us than for the redskins,” stated 
he, humorously. “ Another thing : Here’s 
a good chance to make a mark in the war ; 
so why not do it ? ” 

About a half mile from Tallushatchee 
they drew up and dismounted. Making 
their horses fast among some trees, they 
stole toward the village with all the secrecy 
of stalking animals. Through the trees they 
126 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

caught sight of the fires, neglected, but still 
glowing redly. The huts and lodges lifted 
before them in dense masses ; a sentinel 
stalked to and fro at intervals around the 
town ; now and then a dog howled dismally. 

Because of the sentinels they could not 
venture too near. However, they were 
able to count the number of fires, and so 
were able to reckon upon the number of 
warriors with a fair degree of accuracy. 
For a half hour they prowled about the 
Indian town, endeavoring to learn all that 
was possible ; but then the dogs began to 
get wind of them ; their howls were 
changed to sharp distrustful barks and the 
stalking, shadowy sentinels became alert 
and suspicious. 

“ About time to draw off, I'd say," re- 
marked Jack Davis in a low tone. 

“ Creek all awake soon," said the Chero- 
kee hunter. 

Houston agreed, reluctantly, that this 
was very likely so, and that remaining in 
v 127 


ON THE BORDER 


the vicinity of the village, now that they 
had secured all the information possible, 
was useless. So they drew off silently as 
they had approached ; when they reached 
the spot where their horses had been tied, 
they -could hear the savage barking of the 
village dogs lifted to a higher pitch than 
ever ; and as they mounted and rode away, 
the other unmistakable noises from the 
town showed that the hostiles had been 
aroused from their sleep and were even 
then preparing to meet the hated paleface. 

Houston, a half hour later, had reported 
the facts they had gathered to Colonel 
Coffee ; and in a few minutes more the 
entire command, horse and foot, was once 
more upon the march. As quietly as pos- 
sible the leader advanced his men toward 
Tallushatchee and drew a line about it. 

Dawn showed itself palely in the eastern 
sky ; the savages caught sight of their foes 
with the first slanting rays, and a yell of 
defiance and hate went up from them. 

128 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

The same rays showed Colonel Coffee the 
strength of the Indian position. In spite 
of the fact that his force outnumbered that 
of the Creek warriors, that leader, knowing 
the work ahead before the Creek nation 
was subdued, and knowing that every man 
would be needed, looked troubled. 

“ They will pick a half hundred off 
like flies if we rush them as they are now,” 
said he. 

So, craftily, he began to plan to draw 
them out ; by a feint he accomplished this. 
Thinking they saw a chance to strike a 
deadly blow, the Creeks rushed forward 
with exultant yells. But the whites 
closed around them like a ring of iron 
and there began a most desperate combat. 
Rifles cracked, pistols exploded vengefully, 
tomahawks and hunting knives rose and 
fell in the melee. 

It was the first engagement of the sort in 
which Frank Lawrence had ever been ; but 
he stood shoulder and shoulder with Jack 
129 


ON THE BORDER 


and fired and struck with purpose and de- 
liberation. To all intents he was as steady 
as a veteran. Jack had taken part in more 
than one desperate affray with the red 
men in his expeditions into their hunting 
country, and so he was more or less familiar 
with their methods. 

“ Look out for the wounded Creeks,” he 
advised Frank as he reloaded his piece. 
“ They are never too weak to strike another 
blow. And they are not always dead when 
they appear to be so. They have a habit 
of lying quiet and entangling your legs 
when you come within reach, and pulling 
you down within reach of a knife.” 

Colonel Coffee raged among the Indians 
like an infuriated giant. His great sword 
rose and fell ; he always had a clear space 
around him which his weapon’s sweep 
constantly made larger. Ensign Houston 
fought like a panther. He seemed to glory 
in the dangers which beset him ; wherever 
the battle raged thickest he plunged with 
130 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

his shining face and wild laugh, and the 
bravest of the Creeks shrank from his crash- 
ing blows. 

Tighter and tighter closed the steel-like 
ring about the red men. 

“ Remember Fort Mims ! ” was the slogan 
of the backwoodsmen. “ Strike hard ! ” 

Desperation itself was the conduct of the 
Creeks ; they fought like trapped wolves, 
ever seeking to break through the circle of 
their foes. But at length, when the last 
rifle had cracked, the last pistol had spoken 
its sharp sentence of death, the last hatchet, 
sword and knife had ceased to rise and fall, 
the smoke of the conflict slowly lifted and 
drifted away. Of the warriors of Tallus- 
hatchee more than a hundred and sixty 
were slain, and the remainder were taken 
prisoners. And when the white men took 
their way back to the river through the 
morning light they bore upon improvised 
stretchers six of their own men dead, and 
almost a half hundred wounded. 

131 


CHAPTER X 


AN INDIAN MESSENGER 

At Fort Strother things were going with 
little smoothness ; in spite of all that 
General Jackson could do, supplies came 
very irregularly through the forests and 
across the mountains. As things stood, 
almost any other commander would have 
fallen back until arrangements could be 
made to feed the army ; but Jackson held 
on grimly. He knew that this was the 
time to strike ; if he retreated the savages 
would at once conclude that it was a sign 
of fear on the part of the paleface, and so 
their ravages would have grown greater 
than ever. 

“ The contractors must do better I ” de- 
clared the haggard commander of the forces 
of Tennessee. “ No matter what comes or 
132 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

goes, this force must hold its place. I’ll 
not retreat I ” One gaunt hand was lifted 
as he spoke; there was a stain of fever 
in the hollow cheeks, his deep-set eyes 
glowed lion-like from under his bushy 
brows. “ The men who are risking their 
lives to protect this border must have food ; 
and if it’s not sent them, those who have 
neglected their duty will reckon with me.” 

Jack and Frank were seated just outside 
the flap of Jackson’s tent, when the com- 
mander spoke these words to his officers 
within. Jack nodded to his companions. 

“ I wouldn’t care to be an army con- 
tractor and have the general on my trail,” 
said he. “ He wouldn’t stop at much.” 

“ Not he,” said a young Nashville lawyer, 
who was in the scouts. “ Jackson is a man 
who accomplishes everything he sets out to 
do. He does not know what fear is, and 
has the most resolute will I've ever known.” 

“ Well, it seems to me he’ll need it all,” 
said an old hunter who had been driven in 
133 


ON THE BORDER 


from the forest by the Creeks, and who had 
enlisted in the volunteers in an effort to 
retaliate. “It’s a deal to undertake, this 
feeding so many men so far away from any 
place, where supplies can’t be had handily. 
A small party can carry and kill all it needs 
for months ; but a force like this can’t go 
further than its supply train can follow.” 

It was this same night that Jack and 
Frank were visiting in the camp of the 
friendly Cherokees just outside the fort. 
They sat at a camp-fire with the father of 
Running Elk, a stately old chief with a 
hard Cherokee name and great fame as a 
warrior and hunter. Running Elk was 
also there, as were numerous braves of the 
tribe. Conversation with them was most 
difficult, as everything had to be translated 
by Running Elk ; and as his knowledge of 
English was very limited, the boys had to 
work hard to make themselves understood. 

It was while they were so engaged that a 
sudden commotion began upon the outskirts 
i34 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

of the camp ; loud voices were heard in 
the Cherokee tongue, then the rush of 
moccasined feet in the darkness. 

“Hello! What’s all that?” asked Jack 
Davis, looking around. 

The Cherokees about the fire had arisen 
and were talking excitedly among them- 
selves in the laconic Creek jargon. 

“ What’s happened ? ” demanded Frank 
Lawrence of Running Elk. 

The young Indian hunter, who had been 
listening intently to the voices beyond the 
light circle of the camp-fire, replied : 

“ Messenger from Talladega. Much hurt.” 

In a few moments a group of Cherokees 
came forward, bearing a burden between 
them ; they approached the fire and the 
white boys saw that it was an Indian brave 
whom they carried ; as Running Elk had 
said, he seemed badly wounded. 

However, he was strong enough to talk; 
impressively he began to tell his story to 
the Indians, but in the midst of it, catch- 
135 


ON THE BORDER 


ing sight of the white youths, he broke off. 
Holding out his hand to them, appealingly, 
he said in fairly good English : 

“ Young paleface, I, Black Bear of the 
Cherokee people, ask you to carry my mes- 
sage to your chief.” 

“ Speak, Black Bear,” said Jack, quietly ; 
“ and be sure we will do so.” 

The wounded Indian lifted himself upon 
an elbow and proceeded. 

“ I am of the village of Talladega ; we of 
that village are friends of the white man. 
Four suns ago the Red Sticks attacked us ; 
they had us ringed about with spears and 
arrows, and they were as many as the leaves 
of the forest in summer. We fought, but 
we were too few to drive them away. Then 
we held a council, and our old men said we 
must get a runner through the enemy to 
bear the news to the white man, our 
friends.” 

“ And you are the chosen one, are you ? ” 
asked Frank. 

136 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ I am the fourth,” said Black Bear, 
steadily. “The others were killed before 
they got out of sound of the council 
lodge.” 

“How did you get through?” asked 
Jack Davis. 

The brave grimaced ; apparently he had 
no liking for the methods he had been 
forced to use. 

“ The courage of the warrior was no use,” 
said he. “ So another way had to be thought 
of. I crept through their line with the 
skin of a hog drawn about me. It was not 
until I had cast it aside and stood upright 
that one of their sentinels saw me ; and his 
arrow pierced my shoulder.” 

“ And yet you made your way here ? ” 
cried Frank, wonderingly. 

Black Bear nodded, stoically. 

“ Yes,” said he, “ to bring to the white 
chief the news that his friends of the 
Cherokee people are in danger.” 

Within a very few minutes the two boys 
i37 


ON THE BORDER 


were seeking admission to the presence of 
the commander of the army. Upon being 
admitted, they found General Jackson 
seated at a roughly hewn table, writ- 
ing in the light of a half dozen candles. 
He lifted his powerful face, now so drawn 
by long .lines of suffering, and looked at 
them. 

“ What is it ? ” he asked, patiently 
enough. “ The sentry says you have news 
of importance.” 

Jack saluted and stepped forward. 

“ A messenger has just reached the 
Cherokee camp, general. He’s from the 
friendly town of Talladega, and carries the 
news that the place is besieged by the 
Creeks, and is in great danger.” 

Instantly Jackson was upon his feet ; the 
officers in the tent looked up alertly. 

“ Where is this messenger ? ” said Jackson. 
“ Let him be brought here, and with an 
interpreter.” 

“ He can speak English very well, 

138 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

general,” now spoke Frank Lawrence. 
“ But he’s badly hurt.” 

“ Very well ! ” The commander reached 
for his hat, and the officers prepared to 
follow him. “ Lead the way.” 

Seated upon a fallen tree beside the 
Cherokee fire, General Jackson listened to 
the story of Black Bear ; and when he had 
heard it all, he looked at his officers. 

“ This appears to be a most grave situ- 
ation,” said he, “ for the town seems in 
great danger. From this man’s story the 
Creeks are in force, and a blow dealt them 
now would have a double purpose — it would 
rescue the Indians who are our friends, and 
it would go far toward breaking the power 
of the hostiles.” 

The opinions of the officers present were 
that it was an opportunity not to be lost. 
At once they returned to Jackson’s tent ; 
others of the senior officers were summoned 
and a brief council of war was held. Before 
dawn the bugles blew, and the drums 
i39 


ON THE BORDER 


rolled ; horse and foot, the army of Tennes- 
see fell into column, and with the graying 
of the eastern sky, pushed across the river 
and toward Talladega. 


140 


CHAPTER XI 


CAPTURED BY THE CREEKS 

As in all his previous advances, General 
Jackson sent a body of horsemen before the 
main column, under command of the giant 
Colonel Coffee. In advance of these, again, 
rode the scouts and pathfinders, mostly 
Indians and hunters who knew the country 
through which they were passing. 

Jack and Frank were in this party of 
keen-sighted trailers, and rode side by side 
down the forest aisles and across the shallow 
streams. Jack regarded his friend with a 
humorous look. 

“ This kind of a thing is different from 
Richmond,” said he. “ You wouldn't find 
there things so stirring, nor so exciting, of 
an early morning, I know." 

Frank laughed. 

141 


ON THE BORDER 


“ Well, not usually,” said he. “ But/’ 
and he nodded his head, “ I'd not have 
missed it for a good deal. And now that 
my father has had the news about his land 
and, according to his letter, is feeling quite 
comfortable about it, I’m in no hurry to go 
back to Virginia, I can tell you. Things 
are not so regular here ; but they have a 
great sight more go in them.” 

Frank, while they were still at Fort 
Deposit, had received a letter from his 
father, expressing great pleasure at the 
news sent him ; and also telling of the 
gratification it gave him to hear of his boy’s 
gallant conduct. It was Jack who had 
written to tell him of this, without Frank’s 
knowledge. Frank had been dubious as to 
the result when he learned of it, but his 
father’s letter had settled all this. 

“ Danger, my dear boy,” the old man 
had written, “ is a thing which every man 
must face in one form or another. That 
you have faced what has come to you in 
142 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

the performance of your duty pleases me 
beyond description. And since that other 
duty (your aid in defending the homes of 
those who have befriended you) has arisen, 
I can only say, God bless you. Do what 
you have to do with all your might, and 
never think of yourself or me.” 

“ The old gentleman was always game, I 
remember," said Jack, who had been handed 
this letter by Frank, and who had read it 
with a great deal of interest. “ And I'm 
glad I wrote him as I did ; for he's as proud 
of it all as a hen that has a gosling for a 
chicken." 

Frank laughed once more. 

“ It's a very good thing that you did 
write," said he, “ for now I can stay on 
down here until all this trouble's over and 
not feel that father is worrying about me." 

The country through which they were 
passing was one of huge timbered stretches, 
streams, ravines and canebrakes ; the scouts 
were forced to go slowly, searching out the 
i43 


ON THE BORDER 


best way for the column of troops to follow ; 
also they were compelled to watch for lurk- 
ing parties of hostiles. 

“ They are sure to know of what took 
place at Tallushatchee,” said Jack to his 
friend as they rode along. “ And they are 
also sure to be watching us. Creeks don’t 
need much cover, as I guess you know by 
this time ; and a little attention to the bush 
and canebrakes’ll not be thrown away.” 

The idea of a lurking foe was not at all 
pleasant to the young Virginian ; but he 
held his rifle ready and set his jaw and 
guided his nag along without an instant’s 
hesitation. They had covered half of the 
thirty miles to Talladega when the forma- 
tion of the country caused the scouts to 
separate and advance in detached groups. 
The two boys still remained together, Jack 
in advance and Frank close behind ; they 
rode along a narrow ridge which rose up 
like the vertebrae of some monster ; upon 
all sides of them was lowering tangled forest 
i44 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

and canebrake. In the distance they could 
hear the crashing progress of their fellow 
scouts, but they could not see any of them 
because of the tangle. 

Then suddenly, without an instant’s 
warning, a band of Creeks rose up, appar- 
ently from their very path ; before they had 
a chance to fire a shot, to strike a blow or 
make an outcry, they were dragged from 
their horses ; and in a few moments lay 
bound with thongs of deerskin, and gagged 
with sticks thrust between their jaws and 
tied fast. 

Silently and expertly the Creek braves 
performed their task ; then with the two 
prisoners thrown across the horses, they 
made their way like shadows into the 
depths. 

That it was a war party was plain to the 
boys by the variously colored paints which 
streaked their faces, and from the war bon- 
nets of eagle and heron plumes upon their 
heads. As Jack had guessed, the leaders of 
145 


ON THE BORDER 


the horde surrounding Talladega had sent 
out groups of spies to watch for the ad- 
vance of the whites, and the lads had had 
the bad fortune to stumble upon one of these. 

Cleverly, readily, with the sureness of 
men accustomed to the ground over which 
they traveled, the Creeks hurried through 
the forest, aiming to get out of the path of 
the advancing whites ; once they felt they 
had done this, they veered slightly and 
headed in the direction of their operations 
at Talladega. Night fell, but the party of 
spies pressed on ; at length they came in 
sight of the camp-fires of their main body ; 
they halted, and one of them blew a clear 
bird-like call. Almost immediately it was 
answered by a hidden sentinel ; then they 
advanced about twenty-five yards further. 
A half dozen Creeks rose up from the con- 
cealment of stumps and glided from behind 
trees. Greeting the newcomers, they ex- 
amined the captives by the light of torches 
kindled at a masked fire. 

146 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

“ Ugh ! much good horse,” spoke a fat 
brave, as he passed a covetous hand over 
the animals. 

“ White face heap jump!” exulted a 
gaunt savage, hideously disfigured by war 
paint and pox-marks. His snaky eyes were 
riveted upon the bound boys and gleamed 
with wicked anticipation. “ Much jump 
when Muscogee torture.” 

The lads were pulled from the horses , 
backs ; much to their relief, the gags were 
removed from their mouths and their legs 
were unbound. However, their hands were 
kept tied behind their backs ; and in this 
way they were marched forward into the 
camp of the besiegers. 

In the heart of this, surrounded by rank 
on rank of sleeping and squatting Indians, 
they were bound back to back to a tree. 
Three braves were stationed with them as 
guards ; what stir they had caused sub- 
sided ; apparently their cases had been put 
aside until morning. 

147 


ON THE BORDER 


“ Well/’ said Jack, turning his head as 
far as possible to get a glimpse of his friend, 
“ we’ve got into a kind of mess, eh ? ” 

“ It looks like it,” agreed Frank. 
“ We’ve lost horses, rifles, saddles and every- 
thing else.” 

“ That’s bad enough,” said Jack. “ But,” 
and there was a grave note in his voice, 
“ we stand a fair chance of losing our lives 
as well.” 

There was silence for a moment or two ; 
then Frank said, soberly : 

“ It’s a bad scrape. I wonder what sort 
of odds we have against us in the matter 
of escape.” 

, “ Hush ! ” said Jack, in a low warning 
tone. 

The three Creek warriors detailed as their 
guards were moving up and down, silently ; 
they were armed with spears and hatchets 
and knives, and appeared to be a surly, sus- 
picious trio indeed. 

“ Hello, I say, Red Stick,” said Jack 
148 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

to one of them. “ I’d like a drink of 
water.” 

The guard spoken to looked at him un- 
comprehendingly. 

“ Ugh ! ” spoke he, and went on in his 
slow pacing to and fro. 

“ All right,” said the young borderer, 
“ you, then,” to a second, “ could you get 
me some water ? ” 

This savage shook his head and said 
something to the third guard in the Musco- 
gee tongue. But that brave also seemed 
puzzled, and growled impatiently like a 
bear that had been disturbed. Two or three 
times more Jack tried them ; then being 
satisfied by their manner he said, in a re- 
lieved way to Frank : 

“ I guess you can go on with what you 
were saying. None of these fellows speaks 
English.” 

“ Here we are in the middle of them all,” 
said the young Virginian, his eyes going 
about the camp with its hundreds of pros- 
149 


ON THE BORDER 


trate and huddled forms, “ and as we have 
no notion about what to-morrow is going to 
bring us, it would be best, I think, to begin 
counting our chances of getting away.” 

“ The only good chance is in General 
Jackson’s coming up with the army,” said 
Jack. “ But,” and like Frank, he allowed 
his gaze to go about the sleeping camp, 
“ I’ve heard of men’s escaping from Indian 
villages with as many chances against them 
as we have.” 

“ Who knows?” spoke Frank, hopefully. 
“ We may be as lucky as they.” 

“ You never can tell what might turn up,” 
said Jack, his voice colored by the hope 
he caught in that of his comrade. “ Let’s 
look into the prospects a little.” 

Again there was a silence. The guards 
paced up and down with lagging steps, the 
sleepers were as motionless as logs ; from 
the depths of the woods came the calls of 
night birds and the occasional howl of a 
timber wolf. The fires had grown a dull 
150 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

red ; through the thick of the trees a crescent 
moon was sending pale trails of light. 

“Just across from me,” said Frank, who 
faced the north, “ is the sleeping place of 
one whom I take to be a chief. Maybe he’s 
the commander of the whole band. At any 
rate, all our things have been put in his 
charge, rifles, horses and all. ,, 

“ Huh ! ” said Jack, thoughtfully. 
“That’s interesting.” He. seemed to con- 
sider the proposition for a moment, then 
added : “ But, tied up as we are here, I 
don’t see what good it will do us.” 

“ Suppose we were not tied up,” said 
Frank. 

Jack caught at something in the tone 
which caused a thrill to shoot through him. 

“What do you mean?” he asked, in a 
hushed way. 

“ My hands are untied,” said Frank. 
“ I’ve been working at the thongs for the 
last half hour. Keep still now ; I’m going 
to see what can be done for yours.” 

151 


ON THE BORDER 


Jack felt a fumbling about his wrists ; 
the tree to which they were tied was not a 
very large one, and Frank had no difficulty 
in reaching around it, even though his back 
was turned. Frank’s long, strong, clever 
fingers had been noted in the school at 
Richmond, and Jack now recalled some of 
the feats which his friend had then per- 
formed. So it was with growing interest 
and hope that he felt the fumbling at the 
thongs increase. 

“ How are you doing ? ” he asked, 
anxiously. 

“ The knot’s the same,” answered Frank, 
“ but I broke my nails badly on my own ; 
so this will be harder.” 

However, in a few minutes, Jack, to his 
keen delight, felt the thong loosen. He 
had difficulty in restraining the cry of ex- 
ultation which leaped to his lips, but 
managed to pass the supreme moment 
without giving any evidence of the situ- 
ation. A little more and the thong was 
152 


WITH. ANDREW JACKSON 

loose enough for him to slip his hands 
through. 

“ Now / 7 said Frank, “ feel around for the 
knots in the strip that fasten you to the 
trunk ; once we get them untied we’ll have 
some sort of a chance, anyway.” 

The tree to which they were bound was 
well within the shadows ; they worked 
quietly, and so did not attract the attention 
of their guards. The knots were hard to 
find and when their searching fingers had 
found them, they were in such difficult 
positions for working that it was almost 
impossible to do anything with them. 
However, they gave themselves steadily and 
doggedly to the task and, finally, were 
elated to feel the tough leather give ; a few 
moments afterward their bonds were in such 
a condition that they could step out when- 
ever it pleased them to do so. 

“ Now that that’s done,” breathed Jack, 
“ let’s give a little more attention to the 
lay of the land.” 


153 


ON THE BORDER 


The quiet of the night, the uneventful 
nature of their duty, had caused the 
braves guarding them to lag in their steps. 
Finally one of them, his war club upon his 
shoulder, had paused and leaned against a 
tree. It was not long before the other two 
had followed suit. However, as all three 
of them faced the captives there was no 
apparent increase in the chances of the 
latter for escape. 

“ They are keeping their eyes on us,” 
said Jack, quietly. 

“ I see they are,” spoke Frank. “ Do 
you suppose they suspect anything? ” 

“ About our being loose ? No. If they 
did, we’d hear from them without delay.” 

Stillness hung heavily over the camp. 
Some distance away, the ring of braves 
about the town of Talladega occasionally 
gave evidences of being upon the alert ; but 
the warriors here, perhaps worn out by a 
day of conflict, slept like tired animals. 

“ If we only had our rifles and our horses 
i54 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

under us,” said Frank, longingly, “ we 
could make a rush for it.” 

“ Quiet,” said Jack, for he feared their 
talking might be noticed by the guards. 
“ I think I hear something.” 

Jack faced the denser section of the wood 
in which the Creek camp was pitched. 
For some little time he had been watch- 
ing the thin, trailing moonbeams as they 
filtered through the limbs and clambering 
vines. The pallid rays gave no light of 
any consequence ; indeed, they only seemed 
to make the shadows deeper. The rustle 
of the small wild things of the wood occa- 
sionally came from the tangle, but as Jack 
had looked and watched, there had come a 
sound which was different, a regular pur- 
poseful sound which to his quick ears and 
attentive mind suggested the advance of 
some one or something who desired to 
remain unseen and unheard. 

“ What is it? ” asked Frank, after a space. 
He had listened but had heard nothing. 

155 


ON THE BORDER 


“ I get a sound now and then,” said Jack. 
“ It comes from off here in the woods, and 
sounds like some one stealing up to have a 
look at us.” 

“ It’s probably one of the Creeks,” 
whispered Frank. 

But Jack, listening, only pressed the 
speaker’s arm for quiet. For the sound 
had gone on in the tangle, coming nearer 
and nearer. It was so faint, even at its 
loudest, that not once did it attract the 
attention of the three braves on guard. At 
times even Jack fancied that he must be 
mistaken, that it was nothing more than 
his excited imagination. But then the 
sound ceased ; to his amazement he saw 
first one form and then another lift itself 
from the ground. That they were Indians 
was evident even in the dense shadow ; but 
why they should approach in that silent 
fashion puzzled Jack extremely. 

The three Creeks, all with their faces 
toward the captives, had their backs to the 
156 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

place where the mysterious night prowlers 
had appeared, and so they did not see them 
appear ; neither did they see them advance. 

Within a half dozen paces of the boys 
one of the newcomers raised his hand in a 
warning gesture for silence. There was 
a characteristic something in the gesture 
which Jack Davis immediately recognized. 

“ Running Elk!” was his mental ex- 
clamation. 

Step by step the Cherokee hunter and his 
companion advanced. Within springing 
distance there was a pause ; then with the 
silent bound of the panther, each leaped 
upon a Creek guard. Without a sound the 
unsuspecting braves fell under their blows ; 
like lightning they were upon the other one 
before he fairly realized what had taken 
place, and with strong bronze fingers twist- 
ing about his throat he was borne to the 
earth. 

The lads needed no words to tell them 
what to do. With a shake they were free 
i57 


ON THE BORDER 


of their bonds ; a half dozen steps took them 
to where their horses were tied, the saddles 
still upon their backs. Near by, and peril- 
ously close to the sleeping form of the chief 
of whom Frank had spoken, were their 
rifles, powder horns and other equipment ; 
noiselessly possessing themselves of these, 
they cut the ropes which held their horses 
and quietly led them toward the spot where 
Jack had seen Running Elk and his fellow 
hunter appear. 

The third Creek had been quickly dis- 
posed of ; and now the two Cherokees were 
free to turn their attention elsewhere. 

“ Horses, good ! ” muttered Running Elk 
in Jack’s ear. “ Make ’um fast run — 
away.” 

At the edge of the thicket the boys 
climbed into the saddle ; the two hunters 
mounted behind them. Then with a word 
to the faithful nags, they rode unnoticed 
through the Creek camp. A signal whistle 
was heard from a sentinel at the outskirts. 
158 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

This was the sign that speed, not silence, 
was the necessary thing ; so they dug their 
heels into their horses’ ribs and with a scat- 
tering flight of arrows dropping harmlessly 
about them, they dashed away into the 
forest. 


i59 


CHAPTER XII 


A FIGHT — AND A REVOLT 

There was no pursuit by the Creeks, and 
after the first mile or so the doubly laden 
horses were permitted to slow down ; and 
then the two Indians slid to the ground 
and ran easily at their sides, one hand upon 
the saddle. 

A half hour brought them in sight of the 
spot where Jackson’s men had camped for 
the night ; passing the sentries, they were 
received by their friends with surprise and 
enthusiasm. 

“ Never expected to see either of you 
again,” said one of the scouts. “ Not many 
get away from the Creeks when they once 
fall into their hands.” 

A little later the two boys rolled them- 
selves in their blankets and went to sleep ; 

160 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

they felt that as Jackson was so close to the 
Indians, the morning would see a battle. 
And in this they were right. 

At sunrise the haggard general was 
abroad, issuing *his commands. The troops 
were quickly under arms and advancing 
through the forest. 

The force of savages besieging Talladega 
numbered more than a thousand. They 
were well armed, having many rifles and 
muskets supplied by the English, besides 
their spears, war clubs and bows and arrows. 
They were worked up to the proper war 
pitch and did not hesitate to give battle. 
With yells they greeted the force of fron- 
tiersmen, and plunged forward to the fight. 

Andrew Jackson had studied the tactics 
of the Creek nation in warfare, and so had 
a pretty clear idea of what they would do. 
With a few orders, he arranged his soldiers 
in the form of a crescent, the horns pointed 
forward. His horsemen were placed upon 
the flanks. 

161 


ON THE BORDER 

“ As the Creeks rush forward, as I think 
they will do,” said the general to Colonel 
Coffee, who led the cavalry, “ drive forward 
without delay, and get behind them. Then, 
as we force them back, let them feel your 
strength.” 

All being ready and the savages, their 
war cries sounding, filling the air with 
arrows, Jackson said to Jack Davis : 

“ Advance on foot with a score of men and 
engage them with rifle fire ; as they advance, 
fall back until you get the order to stop.” 

Promptly Jack passed the word to his 
fellow scouts. They dismounted and went 
forward, flitting from tree to tree as they 
went, firing sharply and making a great 
pretense of eagerness to push forward. 
Instantly the arrows of the Creeks rained 
about them ; an occasional bullet clipped 
the twigs over their heads. 

“They are great fellows to waste their 
ammunition,” said Jack, from behind a 
huge cottonwood. 


162 



THE ARROWS OF THE CREEKS RAINED ABOUT THEM 



ON THE BORDER 


Frank Lawrence drew a bead upon a 
particularly active foeman and fired. 

“ Yes / 7 said he. “ And seeing that it's so 
hard to get in their case, you 7 d think they’d 
be more careful . 77 

Here the war-whoops grew shriller and 
the fire thicker. 

“ Fall back slowly / 7 ordered Jack. 

The scouts did as directed. Eagerly, 
triumphantly, the redskins followed ; faster 
and faster the little band under Jack re- 
treated ; like a bronze tide the Creeks 
pursued. This was exactly as Jackson had 
figured. Coffee’s cavalry was soon in their 
rear, awaiting the word. 

When the party of scouts reached the 
main body, Jackson signaled for volley 
firing. Feeling the real weight of the force 
confronting them for the first time, the 
Indians retreated. To their consternation 
they found themselves surrounded ; like 
their brothers at Tallushatchee they were in 
the center of an iron ring. Bitterly they 
164 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

fought, like rats in a trap, all the time beat- 
ing at the ring in an effort to break through. 

If it had not been for the rawness and 
confusion on the part of some militia, there 
is scarcely any doubt that General Jackson 
would have ended the Creek war right 
there. But unused to the grimness of a 
protracted fight the militia at one place 
gave way ; and before they could be rallied, 
the savages had discovered the break made 
by their retreat, and poured through it in a 
frenzied stream. 

In this way seven hundred hostiles 
escaped to face Old Hickory on another 
day in the wilderness. But even as it was, 
three hundred of them fell before the rifles 
of the Tennesseeans ; and this, added to the 
blow dealt the Creeks at Tallushatchee, 
went a great way toward weakening their 
power. 

Jackson saw the advantage he had gained, 
and was eager to follow it up ; if he had 
been able to do so he would have been 

165 


ON THE BORDER 

enabled to force the Creeks into another 
battle before many days and so delivered 
the blow which failed at Talladega. 

But it was not to be so. Many things 
conspired to prolong the brave Tennesseean’s 
task. In the first place, much to his amaze- 
ment, no supplies were being sent them 
from Fort Strother ; indeed, a rider brought 
the news that the fort itself was almost 
destitute. To maintain an army in the 
wilderness without food is of course impos- 
sible ; and so, instead of pressing forward to 
the victory which would have ended the 
war, the army was forced to retreat. 

On top of this came the tidings that the 
brigade of troops left at Fort Strother to 
protect those wounded at Tallushatchee 
had been ordered away by the commander 
of another division which was also operat- 
ing in the hostile country. 

Jackson was never a man of mild tem- 
per ; and seeing the result of all his work 
snatched from him in this way caused him 
1 66 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

to burst into a furious denunciation of all 
concerned. Raging like a baffled lion he 
fell back on Fort Strother. Even his 
friends advised him to continue his retreat 
to Fort Deposit on the Tennessee. 

“ You cannot maintain your army here,” 
he was told. “ Go on falling back until 
you have accumulated enough supplies ; 
then you can push on once more.” 

But the stubborn spirit of Jackson was 
aroused. Weakened as he was by his 
wound, haggard, worn and really in a 
dangerous state due to his over-exertion, 
still he was resolved to retreat no further. 

“ Til hold my position at the Ten 
Islands,” declared he, “ if we have to live 
on acorns.” 

Because of this inefficiency of those who 
were in charge of the army’s supplies, and 
because of the loose nature of the terms 
under which his men had volunteered, 
General Jackson was soon plunged into a 
series of crises which would have broken 
167 


ON THE BORDER 


the spirit of a less powerful man. Besides 
the Tennessee militia, there was a body of 
men in his force known as the United 
States volunteers ; these troops, because of 
the lack of food, demanded to be led back 
to the border. There is no doubt that the 
army was in a wretched condition, needing 
not only food, but clothes and shoes as 
well. However, General Jackson realized 
that if they were allowed to have their 
way, the chances were against the advance 
ever being resumed. So without hesitation 
he refused to sanction the demand. 

Officers and men joined together in a 
renewal of the petition, giving their reasons 
in detail. In great anger the commander 
again refused. 

“ We were sent out to subdue the hostile 
Creeks,” said he, sternly, “ and until that 
is done we shall not turn our backs upon 
the wilderness ! ” 

Finding him unyielding, the militia now 
became mutinous ; they broke ranks and 
168 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

doggedly prepared to take the trail back to 
the border. But like lightning Jackson 
acted. 

“ Forward, volunteers I ” he cried, draw- 
ing his sword. “ We shall see who is com- 
mander here.” 

The volunteers threw themselves across 
the path of the dissatisfied militia with 
ready rifles. Seeing that blood would be 
shed, and not desiring any such extreme 
action, the militia officers advised their 
men to give up their purpose. Sullenly 
the militia obeyed, and so the first of the 
mutinies at Fort Strother was at an end. 

A little later discontent broke out once 
more ; this time it was the volunteers, and 
it was the militia, now loyal to the com- 
mander, who were called upon to put the 
outbreak down. 

Some time after the settling of this sec- 
ond uprising of the hungry soldiers, Jack- 
son received word that a large store of 
supplies had arrived at the depot on the 
169 


ON THE BORDER 


Tennessee. Feeling sure that they would 
at once be forwarded, the general said to 
his officers : 

“ Food is at hand ; if it is not here in 
two days, I will consent to fall back.” 

But in counting upon the promptness of 
the contractors, Jackson made a mistake. 
The supplies did not reach Fort Strother 
upon the day set ; and bitterly disappointed 
he was forced to give the word to take the 
border trail. But even then he had not 
entirely given up. 

“ I remain behind if only two men will 
stay with me.” 

Instantly a half dozen, Jack Davis and 
Frank Lawrence among them, stepped 
forward. Jackson's deep set eyes glowed. 

“ Volunteers ! ” he cried, sweeping the 
ranks with his stern gaze. “ Volunteers to 
hold Fort Strother against the Creeks ! ” 

In a few minutes one hundred and nine 
men had responded ; and the army to the 
tap of a single drum set off for the border. 

170 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

It now looked as though the thing were at 
an end ; but not so. Barely a doz^n miles 
from the fort the returning soldiers met a 
large herd of cattle being driven forward. 
This was the meat expected by the general ; 
delighted, the soldiers halted, killed what 
they required and settled themselves for a 
feast. 

But when they had finished and had 
formed to resume their homeward march 
they were astonished to receive the com- 
mand to face about and return to the fort. 
At once they rebelled. But General Jack- 
son was on the ground, and at once took 
the situation in hand. 

“ Men ! ” he cried, one hand uplifted, 
“ you have the food you required. In the 
future things will be better. Turn back. 
The work the border requires of you is yet 
to be done.” 

A cry of dogged protest went up from the 
men ; one company, in spite of its officers, 
started forward. With blazing eyes, Jack- 

171 


ON THE BORDER 

son rode forward, some of his followers at 
his side. 

“ IT1 give you ten seconds to turn back,” 
he shouted, as he rushed his horse at them. 
Sullenly, doggedly, muttering their anger, 
the company fell back upon the main body. 

No move was made homeward by any of 
the others ; but at the same time neither 
did they show any disposition to face about 
as ordered and march back to the fort. 
General Jackson threw himself from horse, 
the pain of his wounded arm forgotten ; 
and he stalked among the rebellious troops 
with bent brows and blazing eyes. 

“ Soldiers ! ” he cried. “ You are all men 
of the border. You know its dangers. In 
the face of the rising savage tide you swore 
to serve your state ; like brave men you 
moved forward to strike a blow at the 
murderers of your fellow settlers. But you 
have had a change of heart ! Why is this ? 
Has the wilderness frightened you ? Have 
the savages, whom you have twice beaten, 
172 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

broken your spirit? You have said it was 
lack of food which turned your thoughts 
homeward. Well, here is food in plenty. 
Be men ; march back to Fort Strother in 
good spirits ; and in one month we shall 
have ended the campaign.” 

But the men refused ; even while he was 
speaking, the boldest of them broke their 
ranks ; the others followed suit ; in a mass, 
disorganized, with no thought of anything 
but their own desires, they moved forward 
on the road home. 

In a fury Jackson seized a rifle from one 
of them ; his left arm was powerless, and 
he was unable to level the rifle in the usual 
way. So he stepped back to where his 
horse was standing ; resting the barrel of 
the weapon across the animal’s neck, he 
covered the mutineers. 

“ Let any man among you make a step 
forward,” he shouted, fiercely, “ and I will 
shoot him as I would a snake.” 

Like a statue of wrath and command he 
173 


ON THE BORDER 

stood for a moment — alone. Then Colonel 
Coffee and another officer, each armed with 
a rifle, leaped to his side. 

“ Now, then,” cried Jack Davis to his 
friend. 

Frank answered promptly ; and as they 
moved forward, the remainder of the scouts 
followed. Then some companies of vol- 
unteers, possibly ashamed of their conduct, 
lined themselves up behind the heroic 
leader. The mass of disorganized soldiers 
hesitated and wavered. 

“ Fall in ! ” thundered General Jackson. 
Automatically, the ranks were reformed. 
“ About-face ! ” They turned toward the 
wilderness fort once more. “ March ! ” 

And away they went, their rifles on their 
shoulders, sullenly but steadily. The iron 
will of Jackson had conquered. 


i74 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

The spirit of revolt which had risen up 
in Jackson’s army would not down. 
Though unflinchingly faced by him it rose 
and rose again ; for these men of the bor- 
der lands were wild, uncontrolled fellows 
who knew no discipline and were accus- 
tomed to receive orders from no man. 

Once Jackson brought two pieces of artil- 
lery to bear upon them, loaded and the gun- 
ners with lighted matches in their hands. 
But as often as he suppressed the mutinies 
just as often they broke out in a fresh 
place. So persistent did the thing become 
that the authorities of the state of Tennes- 
see, and those at Washington, evidently 
having little hope of securing any real 
service from such a discontented force, took 
*75 


ON THE BORDER 


a hand in the proceedings ; the result was 
that the men were gradually recalled. At 
one period the indomitable Jackson had 
but a hundred men left him. 

But then the tide turned. Because of 
his own persistent efforts, those of the au- 
thorities whom he aroused, and the good 
will of those of his officers who had re- 
turned to the settlements, a new army was 
raised. By the middle of the following 
March some five thousand well conditioned 
troops were assembled at Fort Strother. 

During this entire time of stress and fall- 
ing away, Jack Davis and Frank Lawrence 
clung to the cause of the general. And now 
that his star was once more upon the rise, 
they were delighted. 

“ Any other man, almost, would have 
gone down under that fight and never 
risen again/’ said Jack, admiringly. 

“ It’ll not be long now before he gets to 
work again,” said Frank. 

“ I don’t think it’ll be as easy a task as it 
176 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

would have been some time ago,” observed 
the young borderer. “ The Creeks have 
pulled themselves together, and they are 
once more ready to make a fight of it.” 

During all this time of trouble at Fort 
Strother, things had not been at a standstill 
in the Creek country ; that savage tribe 
had been ravaging and burning ; the war- 
whoop had been heard in many a little 
hamlet, and the tomahawks and scalping 
knife had made their presence felt. But 
the white man had not done much in re- 
turn. Floyd and a body of Georgia militia 
had marched against the Indian towns on 
the lower Tallapoosa. At a place called 
Autosee, in November, he attacked the red- 
skins and drove them from the field, slay- 
ing some two hundred of their warriors. 
However, though much was expected of 
him, Floyd did little more. An expedition 
up the Alabama River under General Clai- 
borne was a failure. 

From then on it was seen that if the 
177 


ON THE BORDER 

Creeks were subdued it would be Jackson’s 
force that would do it. 

But while the renewing of his army was 
in progress, Jackson had not altogether 
closed his work against the hostiles. He 
was not the man to pause, even though he 
had but soldiers enough to man his few 
pieces of artillery. But by the early part 
of January, 1814, he had a strong body of 
men at Fort Strother ; though more were on 
their way, he felt that he need not wait for 
them. 

About eighty miles south of his position 
on the Coosa River was a fortified camp of 
Creeks, a place called Tohopeka. At this 
place the savages were assembling in great 
numbers ; the scouts from Fort Strother had 
been watching them for some time and 
keeping the general closely in touch with 
what was happening there. 

One night Jack Davis and Frank Law- 
rence arrived at the fort, their horses in a 
lather of foam. At once they went to the 
178 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

commander’s tent and were admitted. The 
general was seated at his table going over a 
map he had made of the region, and he 
looked up as the boys entered. 

“ Well,” said he, “ what is there to re- 
port?” 

“ We’ve been scouting in the neighbor- 
hood of Tohopeka for the last week,” said 
Jack. “ And things have reached such a 
state we thought it best to come in at once.” 

“ Hah ! ” The deep set eyes of the general 
began to glow. “ So the Indians are still 
gathering ? ” 

“ They are,” replied Frank. “ All the 
villages for a hundred miles around the 
fortifications are pouring braves into it. 
There is something of great moment about 
to be attempted.” 

“ They are better armed than I ever saw 
Indians before,” put in Jack. “ And they 
are drilling and practicing the maneuvers 
of the white man’s sort of warfare.” 

General Jackson, with a quietness of de- 
179 


ON THE BORDER 


meanor which was ominous, asked a num- 
ber of pertinent questions ; and when he 
had learned all they had to tell, he said : 

“ That will do. And as you go out, give 
my compliments to Colonel Coffee and beg 
him to step into my room.” 

When they were outside, Frank said in 
a low, exultant tone : 

“ That means a move of some sort, as 
sure as you live.” 

Colonel Coffee was closeted with the 
commander for perhaps an hour ; then 
other officers of rank were summoned. 
The result was that on the following day 
Jackson led a force of nine hundred 
mounted riflemen, some two hundred 
Cherokees and a cannon for use against 
the Creek fortifications. 

Five days this little army marched 
through the wilderness ; then camp was 
made upon the banks of Emuckfan Creek 
at a place only three miles from the Indian 
fort against which they were moving. 

180 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Preparations were made for a sharp blow to 
be delivered next day ; guards were placed 
about the camp in the charge of alert young 
woodsmen, among whom were Jack and 
Frank. 

Quiet reigned in the forest ; the water of 
the stream went rippling over the stones in 
its bed, the wind stirred in the tops of the 
trees, the stars looked down peacefully. 
But even in the midst of the quiet, Jack 
was not at rest. 

“ I don’t know just why it is,” said he, 
“ but I’ve got the feeling that something is 
going to happen.” 

“ It's the same with me,” replied Frank, 
in the same whispering tone which his 
friend had used. There was a short pause, 
then he added : “ I suppose Fm foolish 

for thinking so, but somehow I’ve got the 
notion that the Creeks are on the move to- 
night.” 

“ What makes you feel that ? ” asked 
Jack, and there was a note in his voice 
181 


ON THE BORDER 


which Frank knew as mingled eagerness 
and alarm. 

“ I fancied I heard and saw something 
several times off there to the south and 
west,” said the young Virginian. 

“ That settles it,” breathed Jack. “ I’ve 
been thinking the same thing. And the 
fact that we both saw and heard it shows 
that it is true.” 

Quickly, but with caution, the word was 
passed to the guard ; at once it began to 
pass from man to man on watch about the 
camp. Then the lads stole back to the line 
of tents, and in a few minutes the men 
were aroused and stood under arms await- 
ing the word from their officers. 

And it was well that they were prepared, 
for suddenly the forest seemed alive with 
savages ; the night was filled with the war- 
whoop of the border-land. But to the 
amazement of the exultant savages, instead 
of a sleeping camp, they found lines of 
riflemen. A sleet of lead swept among 
182 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

them, and with yells of rage they fell back 
into the cover of the woods. Once more, 
after dawn, the Creeks attacked the white 
men, but again they were beaten off, and 
retired to their fort. 

Jackson now managed to get sight of 
this, and also had an opportunity of esti- 
mating the number of savages facing him. 

“ They are too strong ! ” said he, promptly. 
“ With the force at hand we’ll be taking 
too many chances in attacking them.” 

“ You’ll not fall back,” objected the 
officers. 

Jackson nodded and smiled grimly. 

“ But don’t be afraid, sir,” said he. 
“ The Creeks will still be here when we 
come again.” 

Having made up his mind, Jackson at 
once set his little army upon its retrograde 
motion. Eagerly the savages followed, 
hanging to his flanks persistently. At a 
stream called the Enotachopco, the Creeks 
attacked the rear guard fiercely ; but with 

183 


ON THE BORDER 


the aid of the six-pounder gun they were 
held back until the stream was crossed. 

On the twelfth day after its departure the 
army reached Fort Strother once more. 
The result of the expedition was that the 
great prospective movement of the Indians 
was halted and that two hundred of them 
had fallen in the fighting. Jackson’s loss 
was twenty-four killed and seventy-one 
wounded. 


184 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE BATTLE OF THE HOKSESHOE 

Not only did the fights at Emuckfan 
and Enotachopco Creeks dash the spirit of 
the Indians, but they also gave Jackson’s 
raw troops a taste of war as it is waged in 
the wilderness. Instead of harrying the 
border and setting it ablaze as they had no 
doubt intended, the savages were content to 
hold their fort at the bend of the Tallapoosa 
and await the aggression of the white man. 

Being reinforced by more militia and the 
thirty-ninth regiment of regulars, General 
Jackson grew quite at ease and confident 
that success was at last at hand. With 
three thousand troops he moved down the 
river, where some thirty miles south he 
established a new base of supplies called 
Fort Williams. 

“ Let me manage to collect enough pro- 
185 


ON THE BORDER 


visions to last my army but four weeks / 7 
said the commander at this place, “ and I 
will end the war at a blow . 77 

Just about this time there came the 
tidings from Fort Stoddart that fifteen 
hundred men with a great store of supplies 
were about to move up the Alabama River 
to a place called Hickory Grounds. This 
was, perhaps, the most cheerful and helpful 
news that Jackson had heard in a long 
time ; and from then on he felt safe as to 
the future. Let him but open the way to 
that point and his work in the Creek 
country was done. 

So, getting his force under arms, he led 
them through the forest to the bend of the 
Tallapoosa where the Creeks had made 
their stronghold. This bend was much 
like a horseshoe in shape, and built across 
the narrow tongue of land was a “ snake 
fence 77 barrier of logs and earth. Between 
the wall and the river was a space of 
perhaps a hundred acres ; and in front of 
1 86 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

the wall trees had been felled to form a 
shelter for sharp-shooters. The lodges and 
huts of the Indians were built upon the 
river’s edge ; and here their canoes were 
tied, to be used in escaping across the river 
if the fort was carried by the white men. 

The leaders of the savages had boasted 
of the strength of this position, of its pos- 
sibilities for defense or retreat. In the first 
of these claims there was some truth ; the 
barrier was strong and the zigzag manner 
of its building enabled the Indians to sweep 
an attacking party with a deadly cross fire ; 
but as to retreat in case of need, it lacked 
every necessary advantage. 

Coming in sight of the bend, Jackson 
put his plan of battle into instant operation. 
He planted his infantry before the barrier 
of logs and mounted his two small cannon 
on a hill eighty yards away where they 
commanded the Creek position. Colonel 
Coffee, with the mounted troops and 
friendly Indians, was instructed to ford 
187 


ON THE BORDER 


the Tallapoosa and hold the opposite bank 
at the rear of the fort. 

Allowing time for the cavalry to accom- 
plish this movement, General Jackson 
opened with his two pieces of artillery ; the 
shot thudded upon the logs and buried 
themselves in the earth, but apparently no 
damage was done. 

“ It looks as if the guns were too small,” 
observed Jack Davis, his keen eyes upon 
the Creek barrier. 

“ Hark to the redskins hoot ! ” said Frank, 
as yells of mockery came from the strong- 
hold. 

“ That’ll not be for long,” said Jack, 
grimly. “ I see the general’s brows coming 
together. He’ll be fighting mad in a little 
while, and then the Indians had better 
look out.” 

But General Jackson knew the position 
selected by the Creeks was a formidable one, 
and so held back any desire he might have 
had to launch a frontal attack. This, he 
1 88 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

felt sure, would mean the certain death of 
many of his soldiers ; and if the thing could 
be done without that, he was most anxious 
so to accomplish it. 

While the two small guns were booming, 
and the riflemen were endeavoring to pick 
off any Indians who showed themselves, the 
Cherokees who accompanied Colonel Coffee 
in his movement toward the rear of the 
Indian fort introduced a piece of Indian 
warfare which at once brought matters to a 
crisis. Running Elk, who was among them, 
saw the Creek canoes tied upon the opposite 
bank. Without a word he plunged into 
the water and began to swim toward them. 

At once his fellow braves understood his 
purpose ; they also entered the water and 
struck out for the further shore. The Cher- 
okees seized the canoes ; also they set fire to 
the Creek huts and lodges. A great blaze 
went up ; the smoke ascended in clouds. 

Seeing the flames, the infantry before the 
barrier of logs could no longer be held in 
189 


, ON THE BORDER 


check. They begged of the general to per- 
mit them to storm the Indian works, and 
Jackson, seeing their eagerness and not 
desiring to dampen their spirits at this crit- 
ical time, finally gave the word. 

With a rush, the white men, both regu- 
lars and militia, went at the log wall. 
Paying no attention to the sleet of arrows 
and bullets, they scaled it like monkeys. 
The first over was young Sam Houston ; he 
had an arrow through him almost at his 
first move ; but this did not stop him. 
With his clubbed rifle sweeping a path 
among the savages he shouted : 

“ Come on, boys. Strike hard, and the 
thing is done.” 

Jack and Frank were at his heels ; the 
infantry then came smashing down upon 
the Creeks ; and amid the blaze and smoke 
of the burning huts the desperate contest 
was on. Rifle and pistol cracked, bows 
twanged, sword and tomahawk rose and 
fell. At length the savages felt that they 
190 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

were being worsted, but when they turned 
to run they saw that their way was blocked. 
Again they faced their foe and battled like 
cornered wolves ; they did not ask for 
quarter and were given none. With the 
memory of the slaughter at Fort Mims in 
their minds the whites struck vengefully. 

By mid-afternoon the battle was over ; 
the Americans had forty-five men killed 
and about one hundred and fifty wounded. 
The Creeks had lost eight hundred in killed, 
and three hundred were prisoners. 

This was the last of the Creeks as a war- 
like nation ; almost the entire remainder of 
the tribe fled into Florida, where they were 
protected by the Spanish flag. When Gen- 
eral Jackson a little later marched upon 
those villages which he knew were located 
upon the lower Tallapoosa, he found them 
deserted. 

“ And now,” said Jack Davis, as he and 
Frank sat, their rifles laid aside in the 
191 


ON THE BORDER 


peace of the Davis farmhouse, “ the war is 
over as far as the Creeks are concerned ; and 
I don’t think there will be much delay 
about the rights to your father’s land.” 

And this proved to be the case ; for Gen- 
eral Jackson, in his great treaty with the 
Indians at Fort Jackson some time later, 
secured great tracts of territory from the 
subdued savages in payment for the harm 
which they had done. In this ceded land 
was the old grant held by Mr. Lawrence, 
and as soon as his possessions could be re- 
moved from Virginia to the border-land, he 
took possession of it. 

Slowly the settlers took up the land all 
about ; but the hunting grounds remained 
as they had been for many years. And 
through the aisles of the mighty forests, 
across the streams which wound like silver 
threads among the trees, Jack Davis, with 
Frank Lawrence and the Cherokee brave, 
Running Elk, often wandered with rifle and 
bow, stalking deer and hunting bear and 
192 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

panther. Peace was upon all the border- 
land — a peace which they knew would not 
have come for many years if it had not been 
for the invincible resolution of Andrew 
Jackson. 


193 


CHAPTER XV 


LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON 

In the year 1765 an Irish workman of 
Scotch blood, and of the name of Jackson, 
made up his mind that the grind of poverty 
in his native land was too great for endur- 
ance. So, with infinite labor, he scraped 
together a little store of gold ; and with his 
wife and two children he took ship for the 
colonies of America of which he had heard 
such glowing tales. 

George III had been five years king of 
England, and the French war which gave 
Canada to the British had just ended when 
the little family of Jacksons landed at 
Charleston in South Carolina. Having no 
money with which to purchase land, they 
set out with some others for the interior. 
Here, one hundred and fifty miles from 
civilization, and in the midst of a wilder- 
194 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

ness of dark pines, a little clearing was 
made near Waxhaw Creek, a log cabin 
erected, and a home established in the 
new land. 

But the clearing bore only one small crop. 
Then the head of the house sickened and 
died ; the widow was left with fear in her 
heart as to the future of herself and her two 
children. However, after the burial, she 
drove across the border into North Carolina, 
where her sister had established a home ; 
and there in a log house, only a few days 
after her arrival, was born Andrew Jackson, 
seventh president of the republic, and one 
of its greatest soldiers. 

This was on March 15, 1767. About a 
month afterward Mrs. Jackson with her 
children set out for the home of her brother- 
in-law, named Crawford, who lived some 
distance away. Her sister, Crawford’s wife, 
was an invalid ; and for ten years Mrs. 
Jackson lived with them as a sort of house- 
keeper. 


195 


ON THE BORDER 

In this frontier home Andrew Jackson 
grew up into a rather ungainly, rough, hot- 
tempered boy. Among his comrades he 
was something of a bully. It has been long 
said of such boys that they are usually 
cowards ; but in Andrew's case this was not 
true, for there was no more resolute spirit 
on the border than his, even at that early 
day. Andrew’s mother had some thought 
of making a minister of him ; at any rate 
he was sent to the little log schoolhouse, 
and was taught to read ; his handwriting 
was wretched and during the whole course 
of his life he never learned to spell. 

During the boyhood of Jackson great 
questions were on the verge of settlement ; 
the colonies revolted and England set 
about crushing them under the weight of 
her trained regiments. During the boy’s 
ninth year the Declaration of Independ- 
ence was signed ; and in a little while Mar- 
ion, known on the border as “ the Swamp 
Fox,” Sumpter, known as “the Game 
196 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

Cock,” and other heroes of the wilderness 
were up in arms and stemming the tide of 
the red-coated aggression. Amidst the Tory 
outrages, the assaults of the ferocious dra- 
goons of Tarleton, Hugh Jackson, Andrew’s 
elder brother, took up his rifle and joined 
the defenders. He met his death in the 
fight at Stono. 

The old log church was used as an hospi- 
tal, and Mrs. Jackson was among the women 
who nursed the wounded Americans. Not 
long afterward the terrible Tarleton and his 
men made a rush at Waxhaw ; at another 
time the army under Cornwallis attacked 
the same place, and the settlers fled from 
his fury. Six months later the Jacksons 
returned to the ravaged section. Andrew 
was now fourteen, tall and thin and seeth- 
ing with the desire to take part in the fight- 
ing going on all around him. His first 
chance was when, as one of the guard of a 
place attacked by the Tories, he helped to 
beat them off. Dragoons arrived in time 
197 


ON THE BORDER 


to save the Tories, and among the captured 
were Andrew and his brother. 

It was while he was with the British 
that Jackson was slashed by a sword in the 
hands of an officer whose boots he had re- 
fused to blacken. Afterward, wan and 
wasted by neglect and disease, the two boys 
were exchanged. From this experience the 
brother died ; but the stronger constitution 
of Andrew carried him through and he re- 
covered. Mrs. Jackson then heard that her 
nephews were suffering in the British prison 
pens at Charleston ; she hurried to their 
aid, but was attacked by the fever and died. 

Andrew Jackson was now alone in the 
world, and without a penny. After the war 
he turned his little stock of learning to 
good account. He became a backwoods 
schoolmaster. Then he studied law, worked 
in a country store, and afterward opened a 
law office at Nashville in Tennessee. Dur- 
ing all of this period Jackson was acquiring 
a reputation as the wildest and most daring 
198 


WITH ANDREW JACKSON 

spirit on the frontier ; the hot temper of 
his boyhood had cooled not a jot; he was 
always ready for any deed of hardihood, 
and the rough spirits of the border learned 
to fear his anger. 

His marriage, from unusual circum- 
stances attending its contraction, was one 
which promised many sorrows; but as a 
matter of fact proved a very happy one. 
Jackson was sent to Congress from Ten- 
nessee, and was afterward made senator. 
Later he resigned and returned to Nash- 
ville. Here at different times he practiced 
law, kept a store, and farmed. It was at 
this period that he was made commander 
of the state militia, and subdued the Creeks. 
Afterward he became head of the army of 
the United States in the southwest, and 
drove back the British at New Orleans. 

After defeating the Seminole Indians in 
Florida, and performing other services of 
great value to the country, Jackson began a 
political career full of tumult ; he was the 
199 


ON THE BORDER 

most loved and most hated man of his time. 
He was elected President of the United 
States in the year 1828, and again four 
years later. Then he retired to the quiet of 
the “ Hermitage,” near Nashville, as his 
home was called, and spent the remainder 
of his life in peace. He died June 8, 1845. 


The Stories in this Series are : 

IN KENTUCKY WITH DANIEL BOONE 
IN THE ROCKIES WITH KIT CARSON 
IN TEXAS WITH DAVY CROCKETT 
ON THE BORDER WITH ANDREW JACKSON 


200 


John t. McIntyre 


M r. McIntyre was bom 

in Philadelphia. At six 
years of age he was sent to 
St. Michael’s Parochial School in 
that city, and says he considered 
his education finished when he left 
it four years later to begin the 
earning of a living. He was em- 
ployed as a boy at a great many 
things, and admits he was very bad 
at all of them. One of his later 
jobs was clerk in a secondhand 
bookstore, where he acquired an overwhelming love for 
history and also became acquainted with all the 
masters of English literature. His chief ambition as 
a boy was to read more than anyone he knew, and 
he says, “I think I won this race by a million laps.” 

He began to write when he was about twenty and 
he found the way to be rougher than he imagined. 
Finally he began to get stories into the newspapers, 
then into the magazines, and at last, in 1902, published 
his first novel, “The Ragged Edge.” His first book for 
boys, “Fighting King George,” was published in 1905, 
and since then thousands of boys have learned to look 
for a new “McIntyre book” every year. His most 
popular series, “The Young Continentals,” was begun 
in 1909. Mr. McIntyre has also written a great many 
plays, a number of which have been produced pro- 
fessionally, and some novels, including the well-known 
“Ashton-Kirk” series. His books for boys are: 

The Young Continentals at Lexington 

The Young Continentals at Bunker Hill 

The Young Continentals at Trenton 

The Young Continentals at Monmouth 

The Boy Tars of 1812 

Fighting King George 

The Street Singer 

With John Paul Jones 

In the Rockies with Kit Carson 

In Kentucky with Daniel Boone 

In Texas with Davy Crockett 







♦ 


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